


Killing me softly

by Friggy



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: 'enemies' to friends to dumbasses to lovers, Action/Adventure, Destroy Ending, Drama, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Romance, Science Fiction, Shakarian is like really in the background you can pretty much ignore it, Slow Burn, Some Angst and Tragedy, dumbasses in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2020-09-29 14:43:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 73,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20437742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Friggy/pseuds/Friggy
Summary: This has been rattling around in my head for years.Post-Destroy Mass Effect fic.Rating might go up later. Keeping it T for now because of swearing and canon-typical violence.





	1. Killing me softly (part 1)

**Author's Note:**

> Mass Effect belongs to BW and is only the sandbox I'm scraping around in.
> 
> Don't have a Beta so please forgive the goofs.

His day started much like every other this past month.

  
Omni-tool alarm bleeps.

  
Wake up and shut it off.

  
Go to the small bathroom (if you could call a sink in the wall and a tiny toilet crammed in the corner that - no damn elbow room) in the back and take care of his business (he didn't need to bother putting armor on since he slept in it).

  
Eat the nutrient bar he'd stashed the night before.  
Wash his face and teeth.  
Put gloves and helmet on and get back to work.

Work all 'morning' (why the humans insisted they call it morning was beyond him - the moon they were stranded on had no day/night cycles, no atmosphere, no life, it was just a hunk of barren rock with a mining facility they managed to revive and retrofit into something like a command center for their little band of lost/probably forgotten survivors).

  
Take a ten minute lunch break (nutrient bar, again).

  
A quick nap in his suit then back to work till dinner when they would all gather to share a meal of (once more) nutrient bars or paste (depending on the species - the quarian had to filter everything which meant paste and lukewarm water for him and while the dextro rations left were mostly the gross ones they had avoided since ending up here, it was worse when made into paste… poor bastard).

He trudged his way back to camp a little earlier than usual, (the mining facility's comm array was still dead, just like yesterday and all the days before - at least he'd isolated another problem with the melted couplings) not looking forward to choking down another serving of the same disgusting, gray 'authentic graxen flavor' pieces of crap, but feeling ravenous either way.

They weren't on survival rations yet, thank the Spirits they had enough levo and dextro MRA's from the multiple fallen ships all over the moon (they hadn't dared to go to the small planet it orbited, that _thing_ was crashed there).

The others had just brought in a new haul a week ago (more fake graxen flavor and a couple of tasteless ones he'd let Hal'Tamas have - they were gone by now, the little shit had even joked about 'not having to eat the turians yet', as if HE were the carnivore).

Still, Vex supposed it could be worse. They could have run out of food, or water, or their shelter could have depressurized and then they'd slowly die with nowhere to fix their equipment and re-stock the suits Oxigen supply.

  
Or maybe a meteor could have hit them (apparently unlikely, the moon was just in the right place to avoid most big rocks and the facility was dug so deep underground even the ships crashing near it hadn't done much but shake it a little. The human scientist said they'd gotten lucky. Personally, he disagreed - then again, he rarely agreed with most things she said).

The deactivated 'mini' Reaper (which was really only small compared to the big ones) which had been coming right for them almost a month ago had fallen in the planet's gravity well and burned down to pieces in the fall. That strange red glow had pulsed over it and their equipment, frying sensors, drives and all ship VI's at the same time.

Vex swayed on his feet. He was remembering the thing flying behind all the ships and shuttles it dwarfed, shooting most down before the red light killed it and stranded them here.  
He'd thought 'This is it. We'll die like cowards running away in stead of fighting.'

  
He still remembered the human Admiral's command to retreat. Hadn't believed it at the time, but he wasn't in charge of decision-making. His crew had gone to FTL in their Corvette together with a bunch of other allied ships, following the 'Rigidum' Cruiser, that Reaper monster hot on their heels...

Vex shook his head to dispel the flashes of panic and destruction that came after. His stomach rumbled.  
It was somewhat reassuring to know the daily needs of his body didn't give a damn about his mind spiraling.

  
After going through decon, and shaking out his limbs to warm up (space was cold, even with his thermal undersuit and armor - turians _didn't like_ the cold) he headed further in.

  
The giant mess hall was in the back, after several storage rooms (which he hurried past, no point thinking about what was in there) and processing facilities, stuffed into a huge granite slab beside the crew quarters.

A strange sound echoed down the dull grey hallway, must have come from the kitchen - the doors to the mess were kept forcibly open now after the little incident with the faulty lock, amusing as it was (but nobody would dare make fun of Fakra to her face. Pissing off a former krogan battlemaster wasn't particularly good for one's health).

  
As he got closer, he could tell it was some sort of song, but still distorted enough that his translator couldn't pick out the words.

  
It almost sounded… sad?

Intrigued, Vex slowed his steady march and padded to the ruined doors as silently as he could.

  
Poking his head in, he saw the resident scientist (incidentally, the only 'civilian' on the station and probably the most useless of them all) puttering around the electric stoves and… singing.

It sounded like a lament.

Turians weren't really that big on mourning. Paying respect for sacrifice, sure - but making sure morale was high enough to get soldiers through the next wave of fighting was more important. He'd always liked 'Die for the cause' and other anthems of war.  
Still, it didn't sound half bad. Her voice, while lacking the second set of vocals he normally liked, was steady, low and almost soothing.

He unconsciously walked closer and tried to understand the lyrics...

  
Ah… it was some sappy human love song.

A weird one too.

How could one be 'killed softly'?  
Maybe suffocated with a pillow?  
No, suffocation was definitely not soft or painless.

Scoffing, he crossed his arms.

  
The he had an idea.

  
He fiddled on his omni-tool and opened the general channel to everyone.

\--

At first, he'd thought the woman was soft-spoken and quiet. Unless she disagreed with something. Then she wouldn't shut up.

The ridiculous little pyjack had been getting on his nerves for a while, she always argued against trying to fix the Agilis (the corvette he and his CO had crashed in, the only ship halfway functional except for the Brick - Fakra's shuttle - which didn't have a drive core) and setting out, blubbering something about strange gravity readings and needing full use of sensors and comms to navigate off this damn graveyard.

Too bad Caballim Sylcus thought she had a point.  
And Tony (Vex had thought Alliance types were mostly ok after fighting with a unit on Earth and Tony was a good man, bit gullible when it came to women though).

  
Then Hal confirmed her findings with his own limited tech.

  
Even Fakra took her side, which was surprising, he'd thought the krogan hated being stuck here as much as him.  
  
The other three members of their little group had either refrained to comment or given up. They were outnumbered anyway and he'd follow his Caballim, even against his wishes.

Nine unfortunate survivors, all stuck here because of the Reapers, whatever the fuck the red wave had been and one stubbornly convincing human girl.

\--

He leaned back and frowned at her, still oblivious to his presence, still singing her silly, haunting song. If he'd been an attacker she would have been dead long ago, useless human.

<<Hey, who's messing with the radio?>> came the prickly voice of Caballim Liveria Sylcus through his local comm, loud enough to echo with a tinny sound outside of his helmet.

The human squeaked and jumped, a mug of hot water falling to the ground with a loud clatter.

<<Awh, why'd you go and ruin the fun?>> Tony whined. He must have still been busy sorting supplies with Ianni.

<<Yeah, that was really nice.>> the young maiden added excitedly. (Well, young by asari standards. She was almost three times as old as Vex)

<<Ooh, I think I heard this song before.>> Added Hal in his signature choppy accent.

<<This channel is reserved for important business only. Cut the chatter and head back to camp. We need to talk.>> Sylcus clicked off and the general comm went silent.

Cols and Fakra rarely talked in general. He figured they didn't give a damn about human ramblings.

The human woman was giving him a dirty look, as if he'd betrayed her entire clan along with her.

On his private comm, Lu chipped in: <<Someone's in troooo-uuu-bleeee.>>

  
Vex snickered, and turned away to grab an MRE for himself and Hal who had just arrived and was going straight for the purifier in the corner.

  
Sylcus would rip him a new one, but it was worth it.


	2. Killing me softly (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We continue

All nine of them could easily fit at one of the smaller tables with plenty of space to spare.

Out of all those ships, probably filled with people who were fleeing, fighting or both, only the nine of them were left.

Well, there was also the geth in storage, but the hunk of bolts had deactivated along with pretty much every other piece of tech out here.

Still, he refrained from mentioning it.

The humans got touchy about it and he didn't want to sour Tony's mood, or creep Hal out. The guy had a knack for making people smile whenever he was cheery, Vex figured they could all use it.

The seating arrangements went as usual, the humans stuck together.

Fakra Korten sat next to the girl.

For some reason, the old krogan liked them, he supposed it had to do with the humans letting her hitch a ride on their transport.

Too bad she had disengaged too soon and lost the other member of her crew on the Brick (another topic to avoid. He could still smell the krogan corpse they had helped burn a few days after the crash - one of the many useless storage rooms had been used and sealed off for this).

Tenn Cols - the salarian (Vex suspected the old coot might have been STG sometime ago, black ops recognized black ops) was, strangely, ok with sitting next to the giant female krogan, quietly chocking down his meal with almost perfectly supressed winces.

On the other side of the table, the two asari - Alunia M'Tara (or Lu to family) and Ianni Desteris sat in the middle, with Hal'Tamas nar Idenna next to Ianni, giggling at something on the boy's omni-tool.

Vex himself sat next to Lu at the end of the table, and his CO, Liveria Sylcus, had decided to eat standing up. The latter was still giving him judgy looks.

Even though she wasn't that much older than him, she always managed to make him feel like a kid caught stealing sweets at midnight sometimes.

Now was one of those times.

If she'd really been pissed at him, she would have him doing drills all over the station, but they both knew resources were limited and wasting time and energy on physical punishment was illthought.

The human girl was now studiously ignoring him.

Sylcus frowned at him more.

He had a feeling she'd come up with something eventually... Best to enjoy the moment then.

"So." he began, disturbing the silence filled with mastication (or loud swallowing and a belch from Fakra).

All eyes except for the dirt-brown of the human girl's went to him.

Most of them looking curious (it was boring here after all, a little fun at someone's expense wasn't unheard of) or with barely supressed exasperation (that was Sylcus).

"Tell us what that song was." he prompted at the girl.

Hal and Ianni glanced between them, bouncy in their seats.

Tony poked the girl with a meaty finger, and leaned over.

"C'mon Julie, it was really nice." he soothes as Vex flicked a mandible in annoyance.

He'd wanted to embarrass her again, not compliment her.

"Could you sing it again?" Ianni blurted. Her scalp looked unusually purple.

"Can I record it fully this time? I couldn't catch everything last time." Hal gestured with his tool. He sounded so eager, like a trained varren wagging his tail for treats.

Vex felt like gagging.

Lu glanced at him then jabbed him in the side with her good arm, making him grunt and scraping the rigid cast on the heel of her right foot loudly over the floor.

"I believe I've heard this Earth song before, Miss Moore, but I can't quite remember how it goes…" she demurred, laying the charm on thick.

Vex rubbed at his side.

Ugh, there she goes again. How she managed to flirt with half her limbs held out at awkward positions, wrapped in yellowy-white cast material and still sell it (judging by the slight coloring on Moore's cheeks) was a mystery for the ages.

Dr. Julieta Moore looked like a pyjack caught in the headlights.

How could anyone take this woman seriously? At least she didn't stutter.

She took a breath and looked like she was a bout to speak when…

"We used to sing in the female camps. Round the fire-pit, in the evening." Fakra boomed in her gravelly tone.

Dr. Moore sighed in relief and Vex pouted.

"Krogan songs are nothing like any of yours, though." she shrugged a massive shoulder.

"Every evening, you say…" Lu mused while tapping her fingertips together.

A collective thoughtful silence descended over the group.

"Hey, maybe you could-"

"So, what did you have to tell us Caballim Sylcus?" Moore interrupted Lu before she got roped into whatever the asari had in mind.

"Just Liveria is fine, doctor. I wanted us to finish dinner before I briefed you all, but now's as good a time as any."

Pfft, Vex would never get away with calling her anything but _ma'am_, _Commander_ or _Caballim Sylcus_.

Why did everyone else get a break?

Sylcus cleared her throat and dumped the foil of her meal in the recycler chute.

"I think I found a mostly intact comm unit in one of the pieces of the Nefenia. Anguisan, Hal - you'll come with me tomorrow to check it out. I didn't want to risk breaking anything to bring it here."

"Did it still have power?"

"How intact was it?"

Both men asked at the same time in a garble.

"Settle down. We'll check it out in the morning. You know I'm not good with tech. That's why we have you two."

Hal returned to his paste with a hum.

Ianni was fiddling with the frayed edges of her fatigues. "Did you… did you find any-"

"No, Ianni, I'm sorry."

"I'll come with you and take care of them." Fakra rumbled, not unkindly.

"Believe shuttle would be useful to carry… extra cargo. Can pilot." Tenn said, narrowly avoiding the word 'bodies'. Points for effort, Vex supposed.

"Boss, I thought you told everyone to steer clear of the Nefenia, it's barely hanging over a ledge. What were you even doing there?" Tony asked with a fuzzy frown.

"He's right, Syl - Liveria. You shouldn't have gone alone."

Finally, something he and Moore could agree on.

"I know what I said, but the levo rations won't last as long as ours, we needed to go there eventually anyway. I was scouting near it and thought I'd give it a look. Don't worry, I was careful. We should grab whatever rations we find too."

Admittedly, the Caballim was more than capable, she'd just Charge out of the ship's remains if she kept a clean line of sight to the outside.

_ Damn scary woman._

"Fine, but I think I should go with you guys and have a look at the ground, see how far you can push in before it becomes structurally unstable." Moore nodded while fiddling with her omni-tool.

"Wait, wait, wait." Vex cut in. "This is a military operation, we don't need you gumming it up."

That earned him a hateful look, anger shining out of those big, round eyes.

"I can make sure she keeps safe." Tony patted the table in front of him and got up. "You gonn eat that?"

Moore looked down at her rations, about half was left. "You can have it."

Vex threw the man a baleful look, only to be ignored completely in favor of food. Maybe the human MRE's were better, Tony looked like he was enjoying himself.

Moore crossed her arms and fixed him with a school-teacher stare.

"You'll have Hal with you, he isn't military." she argued.

"Yeah, but Hal can shoot."

"Uhh..." the quarian raised a solitary finger.

"What are you gonna shoot on an abandoned moon? _Space-rocks_?!" she shrilled at him.

Vex huffed. "You never know what you'll find out there. What if that Reaper shed some troops on the way down, huh? You gonna talk them to death?"

"We've seen no evidence of husk activity in the pa-"

"That doesn't mean there won't be." he insisted, anger rising.

"And what happens if you get stuck somewhere again? Expect one of us to almost die for - "

"ENOUGH!" Lu bellowed, blue corona flaring around her. He was too fired up to look around but he was pretty sure he spotted everyone but Fakra flinch - the krogan just looked like she was enjoying a show.

"You bastard." Moore muttered at him. Something wet flashing in her eyes.

"Stand down Anguisan." Sylcus ordered and Vex reluctantly sat back down.

_ When had they stood up?_

"Everyone is dismissed. Go see to your duties before lights-out."

She turned to him with another dissapointed look that made him feel five inches tall.

"Vexoten, follow me." she added quietly.

Uh-oh, she almost _never_ used his first name.

This wasn't totally uncommon - Sylcus was usually loose with her crew, a friendly sort of leader. Not what the Hierarchy liked to see but she got results.

Something changed between them since they got separated from Cadet Ixen and had lost… since they were the only two left, he didn't know what to expect and that made him nervous.

Lu was staring daggers at him as he got up again.

"You and I need to talk later."

_ Crap_.

He didn't pay attention to the rest dispersing.

\------

Sylcus let Vex go out in front of her, then motioned for him to follow her to her room, one of the biggest ones in the executive wing.

They'd all had their pick of the place, Vex had chosen a small cubby way in the back, more of a closet than a bedroom really, but it had a cot and a tiny bathroom and it was all he needed.

He was used to far less personal space in the Hierarchy anyway. Plus, it was he only room that had lacked any personal effects left over by the miners and overseers who had lived here before they'd fled to who knows where.

He'd only caught glimpses of Sylcus' room before. It had enough space for a big bed, a desk, a chair and standing room for two - maybe three people if they were ok with being cosy.

Sylcus had apparently stripped it of any remnants of it's previous owner.

Likely stuffed everything in the crate shoved under the bed. She'd always been the practical sort.

He took a seat in the chair as she gestured to it, while she remained standing.

She looked tired.

The silence stretched for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Vex wasn't sure if he was supposed to start or not. He knew he'd crossed a line. He might even regret it (but only a little).

Finally, after what felt like a century sweating bullets and twiddling his thumbs under her steady, unflinching gaze: "We have an… optional objective tommorow, once we secure the comm and the food; you'll grab one of the punching bags I saw in the cargo bay. I can't believe the damn thing survived the crash…" she trailed off.

"A… punching bag?"

"Yeah, and after you get it set up in the clear storage room, you'll work off whatever's eating at you and stop antagonizing the human crew."

"Hey, I _like_ Tony..."

She only gave him a pointed look.

"I expect you to behave like a cohesive part of the unit. We're all we've got out here, the situation is stressful enough as it is. But if we want to survive this, we can't start fighting each other." she paused for breath and tapped the talon of her right boot once, twice.

"This isn't like you, Vex."

He was about to argue about 'extenuating circumstances' before realizing it would only make his seem childish. He knew he should have kept his damn mouth shut (it always got him in trouble, almost lost an eye once).

And he felt there was a limit to Sylcus' patience anyway, best avoid it.

"Understood, Caballim."

Her shoulders relaxed, and there was almost a smile as she headed to open the door.

"Oh, and by the way, you've got latrine duty tonight."

Of _course_ he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are all the character bios:
> 
> Vexoten Anguisan - Cabal/Mechanical Engineer, 29
> 
> Alunia M'Tara - Senior Nurse, 554
> 
> Ianni Desteris - Junior Nurse, 93
> 
> Tenn Cols - N/A, 42
> 
> Hal'Tamas nar Idenna - Engineer on Pilgrimage, 21
> 
> Liveria Sylcus - Caballim/Vanguard, 41
> 
> Anthony Endrizzi - Alliance soldier, 33
> 
> Julieta Moore - Researcher, 30
> 
> Fakra Korten - former Battlemaster, over 800


	3. Killing me softly (part 3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short one for now.

Lu caught him elbow deep in one of the toilets from the communal bathroom (everyone with a private bathroom - himself and Fakra - had to handle their own stuff. The crew showers were cleaned by one of whole team through rotation, it was the only place with passable water pressure and a heating system so everyone used them). He supposed it was better than catching him with his pants down, but not by much.

"What the shit, man?" she yelled, scraping her crutches annoyingly on the floor. He'd have to take a look at the rubber tips again. Maybe he'd find better materials and weld her a new pair alltogether.

Vex let out an involuntary bark of laughter.

"This isn't funny. I told you _that_ was nobody's fault."  
She was trying to sound stern and severe like she used to back when he was a fledgeling and tended to listen to figures of authority better.  
The effect was ruined by the casts and the crutches getting jostled.

Lu never let anything keep her down for long. Not even a fissured femur, a dislocated arm, several broken fingers in a badly set hand, a whole lot of bruises and two cracked ribs. She'd had a concussion too.

"_That_ \- " he scrubbed a little harder "would have been completely avoidable if the little pyjack ran a bit faster."

'_That_' referred to how Lu had gotten her injuries all of which could be laid at the stupid tiny feet of that damnable stubborn human woman.  
Neither of them really liked to talk about it in detail, so it just became '_that_' or _'the accident_' or maybe '_when we crashed_' (it was right after he crashed and barely constituted as an accident in his opinion).

Lu sighed and attempted to rub her eyes with her good hand while wobbling on one crutch with her armpit.

He got up and stabilized her by the shoulder before she nosedived into the sink.

  
She looked like she was about to forgive him (or maybe she was just tired of arguing with him - sometimes the two conflated), but then she scrunched her nose in a way that would have been impossible for a turian, skin creasing, corners of the mouth going down and a frown so deep on her forehead it probably shifter her crest forward.

"Did you touch me without washing your hands?!" Lu screeched and tried to push him away, flailing her arm and cast at him pathetically (if she hadn't been so close to death it might even have been amusing, right now it was just sad).

She kept flapping her good arm at his face and he reflexively let her go for a moment… then she put pressure on her injured leg which sounded unpleasant from the extra loud wail of pain right near his aural canals.

  
Vex blindly grabbed at her, managing to catch her around the shoulders and firmly planting one hand on her hip to keep her from falling backwards (which would likely bring new bruises, but sparing her another cracked something might just be worth it).

So, obviously (because the Universe liked fucking with _him_ in particular), Julieta Moore decided to open the bathroom door right at that moment and catch them tangled up and on the brink of falling over.

Human, turian and asari paused for what seemed like an hour, though probably really only lasted a few seconds.

Vex could see the woman going through complicated emotions just based on her squishy face.  
First, there was the typical widening eyes in surprise, then a frown started tugging down between fuzzy brows likely in confusion. 

Then the corners of her mouth did a little spasm as if she were unsure wether to laugh or possibly grimace in disgust.

  
And finally, with a conscious, visible effort her face turned mostly neutral, betrayed only by a slight reddening on her cheeks and on tips of her ears.

Moore swallowed once and shifted first. Vex and Lu scrambled to sit up straight and the asari almost slipped on a wet patch. Vex caught her again by her good arm.

Moore coughed daintily and excused herself, retreating with as much grace as she could, power walking in the direction of her room.

"Not gonna explain that!" Lu put both her arms up (somehow) and shuffled away to her own room. "You gotta talk to her anyway." he heard her mutter while walking away.

The things he did for family...

Vex was left with three toilets to scrub and an awkward situation to sort out.  
He chose to finish scrubbing the toilets for tonight.

Tommorow would be another shitty day.


	4. Killing me softly (part 4)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I lied, here's the rest.

His day started much like every other this past month.

Omni-tool alarm bleeps.

Wake up and shut it off.

Go to the small bathroom in the back and take care of his business.

Eat the nutrient bar he'd stashed the night before.  
Wash his face and teeth.

Put gloves on and grab his helmet then mentally prepare himself to be decent to a person he despised and tried to embarrass, but who had ended up catching him off-kilter in stead.

He wondered if she'd already started circulating weird stories about them. They had a perfectly good explanation, of course, but lonely, bored people tended to gossip.

Vex rounded the corner to go down the main access hall, heading straight for the garage airlock.

  
He'd tried to catch Moore in the mess again but Tony said she'd already suited up and left.

He heard Lu follow him out but neither of them really felt like talking much today so he just accepted she'd be monitoring him from afar, pretending to be sneaky.

There were still about fifteen minutes before the others and Sylcus showed up for final checks and departure. Moore must have been antsy.

Sure enough, he found her sitting in front of the main hangar airlock's view-port, looking out at the moon as if it were some tropical vacation paradise and not a dead hunk of rock in the middle of nowhere, who knows how many light-years away from the nearest relay - not to mention home.

Her hair was loose, usually she kept it tightly pulled up in a short tail at the back of her head. Now, the mass of straight dark strands shone in the bulkhead light. He'd never noticed the little silver strands peppered in before.

Vex decided it was better to make his presence known this time.  
"Uh, hey."

Somewhat expectedly, she startled again, and turned to give him another sour look.

"Hey."

  
Vex fidgeted with a glove while avoiding eye contact.  
Right, he should probably offer an apology for being too much of a jerk first.

"Listen. About the other night..."

"Don't worry about it." Moore shook her head, hair shifting around her shoulders like a curtain.

"R-really?"  
Could the Universe truly have granted him an easy way out for once in his miserable life?

"Sure, I know how - er - _stressful_ being cooped up in here can be. And hey, as long as you're both ha-"  
  
"_No_! No-no. Definitely not!" he interrupted, subvocals going screechy in panic.  
"_Ewwwwww_!" Lu exclaimed from wherever she was eaves-dropping.

  
Moore looked like a startled xemna, ready to bolt, but she stayed put while Lu scraped her way beside him.

"We're related for Goddes' sake." she huffed, a little more purple in the face from all the hobbling.

"Um."

  
"You're making it sound worse." Vex whisper-shouted.

  
"This really isn't any of my busine-"

  
"No, listen. She's like my…"  
"First cousin, a lot of times removed."  
"Yeah."  
"I used to change his diapers -"  
"Can you NOT make this any MORE weird?!"  
"What? It's true. And you used to be so cute when you were all done and -"  
"Lu, _please_."  
"I partially raised him!"  
"Well that would be going a bit far."  
"Wh- the _nerve_?!"

  
"OKAY!!" Moore shouted, surprising all three with the sheer volume. She definitely had vocal range.

A quiet "what the fuck" was heard from behind them and, to his horror, Lu's glee and Moore's… whatever that was (Vex was too busy putting his hand to his brow to parse that) the rest of the away crew had gathered while they were arguing.

Tony was looking at him like he could barely wait to rib him about it.

Fakra looked bored and vaguely amused.

Cols seemed more green next to her.

Hal was bouncing on his toes, which Vex knew meant either joy or nervousness - both just as likely in this case.

And Sylcus was calm, but her shoulders were tense. Vex also knew that meant she was livid.

He thought maybe Ianni wouldn't be here to witness this clusterfuck, but no, she was covering her mouth to stop giggling behind the krogan.

  
"If you're all done, time to head out." Sylcus ordered.

  
People finished clicking on their helmets and got ready to be let out by Ianni, who was now in charge of the place (being the only one with two functional hands).

Lu grabbed him by the cowl and pulled him down.  
"Don't forget you still gotta make this right." she muttered.  
"Later." he muttered back.

\------------------

  
They separated and boarded the Brick shuttle and a small unarmored transport vehicle (the only one in the facility that was repairable) and drove to the biggest chunk of the Nefenia.

Fakra and Cols had the shuttle and would handle whatever dead they found (unfortunately, they could not risk burning corpses anymore, so they'd store them in several crates outside of the facility, in the vacuum of space - perhaps one day, the families could retrieve them).

The humans, Hal, Sylcus and himself were crammed in the transport. He was happy the thing had two seats up front, Sylcus was driving and he climbed in the front passenger seat before Tony had a chance to yell 'Shotgun!".  
Let the squishies stick together.

Moore was uncomfortably wedged between Tony and Hal, both of whoom were wide-shouldered.

"There's more space in the trunk, ugh…" she whined.

"We could always stop and let you go back." he suggested with an unseen grin.

After that, the ride was silent all the way to the crash site.

\----------------

At least a dozen ships were crashed in miserable heaps of half-melted plating and broken hulls. Most peppered the dark side of the moon barely a click away.

The Agilis, the ship that had been his home all these years since he'd been assigned under Sylcus' command, lay several clicks away from the main crash sites and the freezing shade. It was the most intact and undamaged of all.  
Vex still had the urge to reach it and try to fix the drive core, then seal it back up and fly away, even now.

There was nothing left of the Paarunte, Cols' interceptor. The salarian had manged to eject just in time.

The Symplegades (the civilian transport ship that had saved the humans and Fakra) lay just in front of about a third of the Nefenia, crushed by stray pieces from the much larger asari frigate.

Vex shuddered. He still knew exactly where Lu had almost died.

  
Moore was glancing at the drag marks leading under her fallen ship.

He knew she regretted Lu's injuries. But he couldn't quite forgive her for it.  
Not when she had denied his only chance to fix his corvette and get his family actual medical help.  
Not when Lu couldn't sleep because of the pain and lack of meds.  
Not when she had almost sacrificed herself to save Moore's stubborn, fleshy hide.

Lu was tough and they'd patched her up as best they could, damn near used all of their medi-gel on her.  
She was a combat medic and knew how to take care of her injuries herself - but some of her bones had fused back wrong and the healing was slow without an actual hospital and real surgeons.

  
Why the human had even bothered trying to drag the blasted geth out in the first place…

  
He was startled out of his musings by the comms crackling on.

<<All-right people, time to get our salvage. What's the status doc?>> Sylcus, ever the professional.

He looked back up and saw that Moore had changed position. She was now scanning the side of the Nefenia and the ground under it, looking over the giant crater it was hanging over. Tony was close behind her.

Vex gulped. The wreck teetered just over the crater's edge.  
Hal must to have noticed the same, he was absently wringing his hands together.

<<Rock looks solid enough on the first scan, I'd need to climb down to see ->>  
<<Not a chance, Julie.>> Tony interjected.

<<Just... Don't go to the aft, or the sub-engine room. You might end up sliding in the crater, who knows how the ship's dug in...>>

<<Perhaps we could fix it down with more weight in the front?>> Hal questioned timidly.

<<Good idea, not enough.>> came Tenn's clipped tone. <<Several tons of material required.>>

<<I got some tow cables in the back.>> Fakra rumbled.

<<Never know when those could come in handy. We could stick 'em to the hull? Pull with the Brick if anything goes loose?>>

<<May be sufficient. Will stay here, keep the engine running. Just in case.>> Cols winked behind his blue-tinted visor.

Once they were done securing the jagged hull, Vex followed Sylcus, Hal and Fakra into the remains of the frigate.  
They soon encountered the first body and the krogan got to work.

Sylcus led them further in, part of the mess hall was intact, Hal rifled through some easy to reach cabinets and found rations.  
The irony of scavenging for food none of them could eat wasn't lost on him. He didn't comment and helped pack as many away as he could.

Then there was a strange vibration going up through his magboots, making his bones vibrate unpleasantly.

He stumbled towards the aft end of the ship

<<Hey guys, not to hurry you or anything, but the ship just moved like it was in an earthquake.>> Tony's voice was lowered in warning.

They felt another lurch as Tenn pulled it back.

<<Got it, leave the bodies, grab the food.>> Sylcus directed.

They left the extra packs of rations for Fakra to pick up and headed down the bent metal stairs.

Vex could see the chair, that must have belonged to the comm-specialist, denting a wall.  
No comm-specialist though, he noted with some relief.

  
A ray of light shone over her former workdesk. As if iluminaing their target.

Funnily enough, he could see the punching bag through the cargo bay window, a bit flattened, but serviceable.

"You came awfully close to the edge to see this…" he murmured while trying to catch his CO's eye through their helmets.

"Took a peek, got out. Can you salvage it or not?"

"It has power!" Hal crooned as he rifled around.

Vex and Sylcus exchanged a significant look.

"Turn it off, grab what you can, we need to -"

<< You need to get out now!>> Moore's voice sounded panicked.

<< Calm down, this thing's had power for a month and didn't blow up, we'll be fine for another few minutes.>> Vex chastised while helping Hal turn the station off and untangle loose wiring.

<< You don't understand, I can see something leaking down the crater, I couldn't see it before, I thought it was because of the darkness, but something must have happened when the ship moved. It looks fresh.>>

Vex dropped the cables and opened the main panel, grabbed the couplings and yanked them out violently. Hal had the presence of mind to grab the converter. Sylcus was already glowing blue.

Suddenly, there was a lurch, then the ship jerked and there was the nauseating feeling of the ground moving under him.

<< I'm not joking, you really ->>

<< On our way, Fakra you out?>>

<<Uh-huh.>>

<< Cables pulled taut, cannot keep thrust for long.>> Cols supplied.

<< Get in the transports, get ready to take us out.>>

  
They clambered up the shoddy stairs, which fell away once Hal took his foot off the last rung.

He stumbled and dropped his satchel.

The interior hull cracked, more cables blocking their path. A big one fell and pinned Hal down as he was bending to reach for his salvage.

Vex didn't think, he just Threw the cable off the kid while Sylcus gathered him up over her shoulders (still clinging to his bag) and bolted for the broken exit, biotics flaring and helping her float over obstacles, the slightly less than half-gravity of the moon helping her along.

"Go!" Vex yelled into his comms, Throwing more heavy cables and broken pieces away from his CO and her carry-on.

He wasn't nearly as talented or powerful as her, those measly Throws had taken a lot out of him, tired, hungry and wrung out as he was.  
He could still keep a barrier over himself. He had to.

<< H--ry, - saw so--et-ng li-ht up.>> Moore's frightened voice imposed itself irritably over his already frayed nerves.

More pieces fell, sparks flew.

Sylcus cleared the gaping exit.

What was left of the ship had started sliding down the crater, he could see the stars. He hoped she had enough juice left to break their fall.

Vex pumped his legs faster, trying to outrun the ship, to outrun death.

His vista was steadily falling away, darkening as the ship was sliding into the crater fully.

Something tripped him and he fell in stead of jumping as he intended to. He propelled himself forward with a biotic push to avoid a collapsing pannel.

A sharp pain in his left calf, just under the knee. Did he rip his spur off?  
His suit was crowding him with incessant beeps.

He jumped.

Gave one last sputter of biotic power and grabbed onto the loose dirt of the crater's edge.

Already, his suit was blaring temperature warnings. The suit breach alert was almost drowning it out.

He was in the dark, he needed to pull himself up, get up, get UP.  
GET HIM UP!

He thought he actually heard the last part, but he wasn't sure. There were several flashes of light and extended periods of darkness, yelled orders he couldn't understand over the comms.

Or maybe it had only been seconds, his brain was too slugghish to measure time.  
The pain and cold in his leg was distracting, yet numbing as well.

He drifted off into the void, idly wondering which ship's spirit he would join. He would have prefered the Agilis. Most of his friends were already there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk about a cliff-hanger, eh?


	5. Don't stop me now

Consciousness was a curse.

  
Vex woke up in a sequence of hurt and itchiness.

Firsly, there was the niggling doubt that he wasn't actually dead.   
There was no booze or women for starters. He felt like there should have been booze, at least.

Secondly, he was really, really cold, shivering under a rustly blanket he would later discover was also too shiny. Death should at least have the decency to keep him warm, or unfeeling at a minimum.

And thirdly, the afterlife should definitely not have a worried looking Dr. Moore leaning over him, pawing at his chest and shushing him like a child.

"Hey, hey, it's ok, you're ok." she kept soothing at him. It pissed him off.

He tried to ask what happened but all that came out was a choked rasp.

She let him sit up and he was momentarily blinded by the light shining off his crinkly thermal blanket.  
He swore with another rasp and huffed at her offered water before taking it and gulping it down greedily.

It was pleasantly warm as it slid down his dry throat.

Some trickled down the corner of his mouth and he wiped it away clumsily with the back of his hand.   
It also helped him discover he was completely naked.

Moore was oh-so-considerately glancing away (not that she could really see the goods, turians were much better built than humans in this regard) while he fixed his stupid shiny blanket back over himself to try to get warm again.

"What happened." finally.

"I should probably go get-"  
"Just _tell me_, dammit…" he hated how weak he sounded.

"You went into hypothermia and you were bleeding, passed out just before we pulled you up, I think. The cold actually kept you from bleeding out while we got you to the medbay. Alunia and Ianni patched you up and put you in a thermal blanket. Said you'd be fine in a couple of hours after you rest, eat and take a hot shower. In that order." she reported crisply, as if delivering a report on volcanic-rock density or whatever it was she used to do before this whole mess.

"Hal?"

"Got knocked out. Only a nasty headache and some bruises now. No suit ruptures."

He sighed in relief.

"The ship?"

"The Nefenia went down. Doubt we can scavenge it again."

He blinked at her.   
She waited for more questions but he was still wrapping his head around the previous answers.

"I'll get… someone else. Uh, Alunia needs to rest. Liveria had next watch anyway."  
Moore hastily got up and slipped away before he could even say anything. He supposed he should have… said something.

Not two minutes later, Sylcus charged in, looking ready to kill something.  
He knew, objectively, she wouldn't kill him, but he was the only one in the room and _naked_. Not a great combination.

"Good to see you awake, Anguisan." she breathed, shoulders sagging.

"Good to be back, ma'am." he would have stood to salute, but he shifted his leg and winced.

"Ah, you got something of a battlescar now. Sheared it right off, armor and all. Good thing it wasn't your whole leg." she winced sympatetically.

"Dammit, that was my favorite spur." he lamented, only half-joking. At least he didn't tear off the muscle. That would have crippled him for a long time.  
Could have bled out easy too. Thank the stars for Lu, medigel and, surprisingly, the cold.

"You'll be fine. Maybe a little less lucky with the ladies, but fine."

"I'll have you know, commander, my popularity wasn't all due to my rugged good looks." he winked.

"Rugged? _You_?! Ha! You were moaning about not having a decent buff for your fringe or talon clippers and a good file not a week ago."

"Hey, it's a matter of personal hygiene."

"Uh-huh."

Vex's calf still smarted something fierce, but he got a very rare smile out of Sylcus. It was almost worth it.

His thoughts turned somber.  
"Did we get enough?"

Sylcus' smile fell. He regretted it, but he needed to know.

"Enough levo rations to last us another few months, high-grade." she nodded.

"And…"

"And some parts you and Hal grabbed. I think he said something about couplings?"

"Good… good."

He didn't really know what else to say. He could have died to feed the others, but he wouldn't have minded that. What he regretted most was not getting more parts for the comm array or other useful salvage.

"Too bad about the punching bag." he mused. "Could have really used something to beat right about now." he looked away in mock dejection.

He spotted that little smile again out of the corner of his eye.

"I'm sure Fakra would spar with you, if you ask her real nice."

"No offense ma'am but I'd like to keep my remaining spur."   
No. _Really_.

"Suit yourself." she shrugged, still amused.

"You know..." Sylcus hesitated. She never hesitated.

"Hm?"   
Pretend to be ok with it.

"Dr Moore was the one who ran after you. Caught you before you slipped all the way down."

Vex stared at his CO like she'd just grown another head.

"In fact, she disobeyed a direct order to get in the transport. Tricked Endrizzi into getting behind the wheel. Fakra was already on the shuttle with Cols, she dropped to chase Julie down and pulled both of you knuckleheads back up before you dragged her down."

Vex kept staring.

"Said she'd knock your teeth in if you pulled a stunt like that again."

"Who, _Moore_?" the thought of the slim human threatening his teeth with her fragile little bony hand was perplexing. That woman might have been mouthy but she just didn't have it in her to be violent.

"No, Fakra. And she was talking about you both."

"Wait, what did _I_ even do?"  
He understood punching the human, she had risked her life and someone else's trying to save a fallen comrade… again (he still didn't think the geth really counted, but it was the principle of the matter).  
It was different when it was his life though.

  
"You think I didn't notice you flinging debris out of my way?"

"But-"

"You know I can handle myself. I've mopped the floor with you enough times."

Well, she _had_.

"You had Hal to watch out for and couldn't Charge without breaking him. Figured you could use someone watching both your backs."

Sylcus clicked her mandibles. She didn't like it but she knew how many close calls she'd had too. It was trained into them to take care of the team rather than the self. 

She didn't get the chance to say anything else. Lu barged in and practically threw herself over him.

"Goddess, it's so good to see you awake, you dumbass! I was so worried!" she squeezed him. The dark bags under her eyes had gotten worse.

"Um, Lu, could you maybe do this once I put some clothes on?" he tried not to squeak from under her. She was rather solid for an asari.

"Oh, hush, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

"NOT RECENTLY!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having such a good time  
I'm having a ball


	6. Don't stop believin'

His day started much like every other this past month.

Omni-tool alarm bleeps.

Wake up and shut it off.

Go to the small bathroom in the back and take care of his business...

Well, maybe it wasn't quite like every other day.

His leg still hurt and, although he'd taken the longest (ten minutes) hottest (really only as hot as he liked it in the begining, got lukewarm halfway through) shower of the month he was still a little chilly.

In stead of diving into his dwindling stash of 'authentic graxen flavor' rations he decided to have his breakfast of 'authentic graxen flavored' brick of crap in the mess hall. See who else was up and about.

Luck would have it, Moore was the only one there. Yet again with her back to the door.  
Perfect.  
Time to get this over with.

"Hey."  
Of course, she jumped a little before turning around. She didn't drop her cup of hot water this time.

"Can you stop doing that?!"

"Doing what?" he knew what. He still liked riling her up, but that little spike of malice usually associated with the habit was conspicuously absent.

"You know what. Sneaking up on me then almost making me drop my drink."

"Hmm, you know, you could stand to be a little more… how should I put this…" he scratched at his chin with a gloved talon, he really needed to clip them "… aware of your surroundings." he finished diplomatically.

"Well, maybe you should stop being such an ass."

Oh, some spunk after all this time?

He scoffed. "Fine, fine. But don't come crying when someone actually dangerous slips behind you."

"Pff, no worries there." Moore grumbled and grabbed a seat, sipping at her hot water slowly.

"Why the hot water?"

"Hm? Oh, I miss tea. And it helps with the cold. Not exactly a tropical paradise here."  
  
"You don't know the half of it."

"There's more if you like?" she pointed a thumb behind her at the steaming pot.

Well, why the hell not, he was feeling pretty cold himself. He'd give his remaining right spur for a hot, lightly spiced mug of his mother's kava right about now.

_No_, don't think about mom.

He supposed hot water would have to do.

He fixed himself a cup and sat opposite her.

They nursed their drinks in companionable silence.  
Vex found the whole scene a little surreal, he never thought he'd actually tolerate time alone with Moore, let alone enjoy it.

He figured partially owing her his life had a lot to do with it.

Right.

He cleared his throat. Gullet rumbling with hunger (or maybe nerves?)

"I - " talons clicked on metal mug "thank you."

He dared a glance and saw her wide, brown eyes searching his. As if uncertain of his honesty. He supposed it was only natural.

"And I'm sorry."

She blinked repeatedly. He thought he saw that odd shine at the corners of her eyes again, but it went away.

"I blamed you for… for a _lot_ of things. Because it was… it was easier than thinking about the war, what's going on out there and who else is even alive and why no one is looking for us… it was easier than… everything else…"

He gulped some more warm water. His throat was suddenly very dry.

The silence was no longer pleasant. In fact, he felt more and more like a fool.  
Sure, he'd apologized, even admitted to his failings. But the damage had been done, the woman had every right to throw it back in his face. He'd been nasty to her for a whole month.

One measly little 'I'm sorry' wouldn't mend all that time. He had hoped… since she'd offered him a seat and…

Vex hastily got up, almost spilling what was left of his drink.

"Wait."  
He froze.

"I get it."

  
_Do you though?_

"It… hasn't really been easy out here."

"Yeah, but you're not the one who -"

"I was plenty shitty to you too."  
He'd never heard her swear before.

"And I admit, it was kind of nice to yell at someone sometimes." the left corner of her mouth curved, a small depression forming in her cheek. He'd never seen her smile either.

"What I said about not flying out of here… It was mostly true."

"_Mostly_?" and just when he thought he could trust the little…

"The readings I have suggest it but… we have plenty of water and food here, shelter, places to scavenge, no predators or enemies. I was… I was afraid that if we managed to fly out... We'd just die alone on a tiny ship."

"As opposed to dying alone on a mining facility?"

"Well, it's bigger, can store more resources… but… yes." she finished lamely and looked away from him in shame.

  
It took a big chunk of his patience to parse through all that and not get angry at her again. It would have been easy.

"Be honest. Do you really think we can't fly out of here?"

"I'm sure you and Hal can get us flying." she threw the compliment as if it were fact. "But go where? We have no comms, no navigation, we don't even know what corner of space we're IN!"

"Your frigate can sustain ten people for a little over a month, after that? Even IF we pack it with as much food and water as we can carry and even IF we get it off the ground, we'll run out of fuel and then out of air before we run out of food if we don't have any resupply stations on the way out."

Vex flexed his mandibles, he hadn't done all the math yet but it sounded about right.

  
"Establishing communication and finding location data before departure is only chance." Cols added. When had he even...?

"Green's is right. Think you can give that array another go, Gimpy?" Fakra grunted from the doorway.

"Gimpy?!"

"Don't worry about it, she calls me 'Kid' all the time." Hal added as he walked in.

"We all call you Kid… Kid." Tony came in next.

"Were you all just… hiding?" Moore asked.

"Not really, I just got here." Ianni walked in with a wobbly Lu. The latter looked much better rested.

"Oh good, you're all here." Sylcus walked in last.  
"I think it's time we come up with a new approach."

\---------

  
Vex was still reeling, but listening to his CO was too well drilled into him since bootcamp.

"What do you mean, ma'am?"

Sylcus grabbed two rations from the dextro cubboard and threw him one. Hal was already purifying his share.

"I've been thinking a lot after our talk last night Dr Moore."

They had talked? In private? Did they talk about _him_ too...

"I think I know how to solve our communication problem. Maybe get more fuel too."

"You can't seriously think..." Moore frowned.

"I know for a fact it was outfitted with the newest tech."

"Hm, yes, using downed cruiser may be our only chance." Tenn paced while nibbling on his high-calory asari made ration. No winces this time. High-grade shows.

"Hoooold up, cruiser? Didn't that thing crash to the planet?" Tony held up his hands, then crossed them.

  
"But that _Reaper_ is down there…" Hal sounded his age more than ever.

"What choice do we have?" Fakra rumbled.

"It may be the bloodloss, but I'm confused." Vex huffed.

"We need to go get the QEC from the Rigidium, dummy." Lu cooed at him and patted the back of his cowl like a doting grandma. He (gently) shoed her away.

The Rigidium was a cruiser-class ship. An older model of the Hierarchy that had been retrofitted with QEC technology. Most ships of the cruiser, carrier and dreadnought class had received such upgrades. There were also a handful of frigates, scout vessels and stealth-ships that probably got them too.  
The Normandy SR-2 was a famous example.

The Agilis had been in line for the upgrade just before the war hit and their resources had to be spread out or re-purposed, or had simply been destroyed.  
There was no time in their mad scramble to fight to do more than the occasional pit-stops to ressuply.

"Didn't we all agree planet-side was too risky?" Vex mused.

"Things change, we need to adapt. Anguisan and Hal, keep trying to fix the facility's comm array, we might need it to communicate with the ground crew. Doc, try to give us the best chance of surviving the planet and an estimate on the Rigidium's location. Cols, you'll pilot the shuttle again, good flying back there by the way." Cols nodded and Fakra harrumphed but offered no argument.  
"Fakra and Endrizzi, you'll be with me on the ground once we have everything we need. The rest will hold down the fort."  
"We can still salvage fuel from up here, main objective will be the QEC and maybe the hangar bay has some shuttles left, but I'm not holding my breath. Keep a lookout for useful stuff anyway."

The human and krogan nodded and went back to eating.

\---

He'd been biding his time, waiting for Sylcus to leave first like she always did.

She must have noticed his insistent observation, she'd been particularly silent after laying down the plan.

"Ma'am." Vex followed Sylcus as she left the mess after disposing of her trash, his own food forgotten.

"I didn't hear my name on the ground crew roster."

"Because you aren't coming." she replied brusquely, like she knew he'd ask.

"With all due respect ma'am, that's -"  
Sylcus halted and he scrambled to stop before running into her.

"Are you questioning my orders?"  
"N-never."

"Good. You need to rest. Right now you're more valuable up here, as an engineer. Didn't you say that was what you were really good at?"

Oh that was _low_. Vex had always felt a little cheated by his weak biotics. It automatically put him in the Cabal even if all he could do was throw some things around and shield himself. If he'd only been an engineer, he would have risen through the ranks.  
Turns out, he was now useless as an engineer since he hadn't actually fixed anything important, and his biotics, weak as they were, had saved his life.

He stood at attention. There was an edge to Sylcus' subvocals. Something like a warning and grief mixed together.

He watched her go down the hallway in silence.

  
\---------

Later, in the "evening", after he and Hal had tried and almost succeeded in bringing the station's comm array back to life with the salvaged parts (they still had a few kinks to work out, but they'd hooted and hollered once they got the first few crackling tones of static and Tenn's garbled exclamation from the Brick's radio. Hal had almost hugged him).

He'd done his job and hadn't argued about joining the ground team anymore, but he still had a couple of ideas. Sylcus had given him a few suspicious looks before dinner but hadn't said anything else.

The whole team were gathered at the small table in much the same formation as usual.

The mood was different though.  
They were no longer just scavenging for supplies to survive until someone found them. They had a real chance at contacting the Hierarchy (or what was left of it).  
QEC stations were build to last, even the room they were built into had a reinforced hull.

"I gotta say Tenn, I never thought barely hearing you through a jury-rigged comm would sound so good." Hal teased.

"Glad to be of service. Although, flanged yelling not particularly easy on ear canals." Cols sniffed.

"You just don't have the… _appreciation_ for it." Vex winked.

Lu broke out in raucuous laugher, Fakra grumbled an amused hum and Ianni was purple. It took Hal about eight extra seconds to get the dirty joke and titter nervously.

"Will not dignify that with response." Cols monotoned.

"Hey, Tenn, maybe you would have preffered some… singing in stead?" Lu asked after she finished coughing.

"From him? _Doubtful_." the salarian deadpanned and the whole table laughed this time. Even Moore was giggling in her seat.

He played into Lu's trap just for a little innocent revenge.

"Have anyone else in mind?" he asked the table at large.

Lu's eyes sparkled with mischief. "Sure I do. I seem to remember a certain Doctor with a _smooth_ singing voice. Think that'd be more up to your standards Tenn?"

Moore spluttered as Cols pretended to think.  
"Believe so. Yes."

"Sing us a song of your people, girlie!" Fakra gestured with a massive arm at the doc. Nice nickname.

"Always liked song from that probe humans sent out."

"Oooh, I heard about that when it was found! Something Be Good? It sounded spunky!" Lu was having the time of her life.

"We had that on the Flotilla as part of the human info packet before leaving for pilgrimage. Actually, the whole art section was wonderful!"

Moore reddened a bit more. "I don't think I have the right kind of voice for that."

"Then sing whatever you know and like, Julie. We could use some fun around here." Tony nudged her with a beefy shoulder, making the smaller woman sway to the side.

"Well, I'm not gonna do it right now!" she hedged at everyone's expectant looks.  
  
"I kind of liked it over the radio" Ianni murmured. "Especially when all I could hear all day was my own breathing."

"Good idea! How 'bout you make a little broadcast before everyone turns in for dinner next time? Like a… what do you humans call it? A bell for dinner?"

"Dinner bell." Tony supplied.

"That's what I said."

"Too bad we can't have a fire-pit." Fakra grumbled.

Moore was bouncing her knee under the table.

"I'll think about it."

  
"Come on people, enough teasing. We got a mission to plan. Any estimates on when the comms'll be done?" Sylcus stepped in.  
Vex had seen her do this with his old crew too. When the ribbing got just a bit too far, or too close to distracting people from work, she'd bring the whole team to focus on something important.

He missed them all now more than ever.

"Should be good in another day or so. We on a schedule?"  
Hal nodded along with him.

"No, do it right, we don't want unexpected failures. What about you doc, anything you can tell us about the planet yet?"

"I've been pointing whatever scanners we have down there since we got here, just in case… anything moved. Except for that weird light I told you about yesterday, there's nothing. No fires that I can see." the rosy flush on Moore's cheeks had receded some.

"It looks like an early stage garden world. G type Sun. Planet's Warm Subterran type, coming in at 1.2 Gravity units. Can't say if it's charted or not without VI navigation data. Spectral analysis suggests the air down there might be breathable but I wouldn't take my helmet off of I were you. Chances are it's teeming with local bacteria and fungal life. It also has a higher concentration of argon and carbon dioxide so it's probably hot AND humid. Temperature scans show 310-320K midday in the region the Rigidium and the… _Reaper_... crashed."  
She paused to sip at her not-tea and cleared her throat.  
"That's about it. I could run more tests if I went with-"

"Hell naw!" Tony exclaimed.

"We don't know what we'll face down there, Julie." Sylcus reasoned. "We'll bring you some dirt to look at if you like." she amended at Moore's crestfallen look.

"Fine. I'll give you a kit."

Vex saw his chance.  
"What about the QEC?"  
  
A thoughtful pause, Fakra scratched her snout.

"What _about_ the QEC?" Sylcus asked, tone neutral but her eyes flashed to him like she knew he was working an angle.

"Anyone here know how to operate one?"  
She wanted him to be an engineer? He'd give her an engineer.

Another thoughtful pause. Cols gripped his chin.

"It's not supposed to be hard to use." Sylcus crossed her arms.

"What if something's damaged?"

Sylcus waved her mandibles about. Nervous or annoyed. Likely both.

"Know your way 'round it, Gimpy?"  
  
He hadn't expected the krogan to ask but he recovered quickly.

"Well, the schematics and basic functional principles are part of the Sentinel Corps general training."

"But you never operated one." Sylcus finished for him with a stern tone.

"Uh, not strictly, no. But I know the basics… theoretically..."

He felt Lu shuffle behind him and mutter something obscene.

"Vex is one of the best mechanical engineers I know, you should probably have someone who has an idea how the thing works, even if it's just theoretical." Lu managed to step forward without wobbling, sounding uncharacteristically stoic. This must be what she was like as a medic, he'd heard she even got to boss generals around once or twice.

He'd definitely get a kick in the ass for this later, but Sylcus nodded and Vex let out a heavy breath he hadn't even realized he was holding.

\-------

Later that night, once they were all headed for their chosen bunks, he shuffled next to Lu and looked at her out of the corner of his eye.  
"What do you mean '_one_' of the best?"

Lu's snorts could be heard echoing down the hallway.

\-------

  
The next day was a flurry of activity. Vex and Hal kept tinkering with the station's comm array untill they were reasonably sure the signal would reach the surface of the planet and, not so surprisingly, found that the automated pings Hal had found in the computer's memory cache pointed towards another facility on the planet's surface.  
Unfortunately, there were no returns, so whatever infrastructure the mining company had set up on the planet had likely been shut down along with everything else. Or it had been crushed by all the falling remains.

Either way, it was good news, it confirmed that the array's antenna was strong enough to keep them in contact with each other once the mission started.

Tony and Fakra were making sure the shuttle was as ready as it could be and loaded supplies to last them for at least four days in case they needed more time to search or dig for the QEC.

Cols had been running simulations with Dr Moore and Sylcus, though Vex was uncertain how those could work out with so little information.

Sylcus was also mad at him.  
She hadn't spoken to him all day, except when addressing the whole team or coordinating.

Ianni and Lu (mostly Ianni) prepped some medkids for them and monitored the station.

Vex was going through his mental to-do list again and re-checking everything when Hal spoke.

"I wish I could come with you."

It took a second for Vex to register the words, he'd been redoing some calculations.

"Hey, there's gotta be at least one… what did Tony call us… oil-monkey?"

"I think it was slippery-ape."

"We'll ask him later. Anyway, one of us has make sure things keep working up here." he said while patting the main console with a dull clang.

"You're the injured one. Shouldn't you be staying behind?"

"You ever read the manual on Quantum Entanglement technology?"

"Well, not that specifically…"

"And it's not about staying behind either. You've got an important job to do. If anything breaks, we'll be relying on you to fix it, you'll be our eye in the sky too."

"Isn't that Julie's job?"

Julie? Since when did he start calling her 'Julie'. It had all been "Yes doctor Moore." or "How can I help, miss?" up until now. Sometimes it felt like the guy had a crush but it couldn't be... not for a _human_, right?

"Details. You'll help her." Vex scratched at his nose. The comm room smelled like varren droppings souring in burnt omni-gel and the smoky stench of overworked air-scrubbers. He'd have to look at those again, check the filters.

"I… " Hal rubbed his hands together and looked everywhere but at him. "… is it because I fucked up the last mission?"

"What?!" Vex didn't mean to raise his voice, regretted it at Hal's flinch.

He put a (hopefully) reassuring hand on the young man's shoulder.

"Hey, c'mon, you know that's not true. If anything, you saved us by having all those parts stowed away. Wasn't your fault the ship was breaking apart."

"But… you got hurt becau-"

"I got hurt because sometimes, shit just happens. We all got out alive, and in my case mostly intact."  
His attempt at humor backfired when Hal cringed again.

"I'm fine. In fact, it's actually easier to kneel now, get to all those hard to reach places I always have you go for."

There was a sniff.  
"But you still make me crawl through the ducts."

"And that just proves it's a good idea to leave you in change up here."

"What if you need to crawl through ducts on the Rigidium?"

That was actually a good question.

"We'll tackle it when we get there. Turian ships are made with slightly wider ducts, I'll manage."

"Really? I read that..."

"Anyway, I'm famished, let's get some food." Vex changed the subject before Hal had a chance to finish, wrapping an arm around the young quarian's shoulders and guiding him away from the console.  
Hal tensed under his arm but then immediately relaxed as he looked up at Vex, the little LED on his mouth-port lighting up out of sync with his words once he started complaining about the lack of variety in their MREs.

Vex reminded himself to look for more rations for them if they had time. Anything that wasn't 'authentic graxen flavor'. If they ever got back to civilization he'd never touch the stuff for as long as he had left to live.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Growth)
> 
> oil-monkey/slippery-ape is supposed to mean grease-monkey if anyone missed it.


	7. Zephyr

This morning didn't start like the rest at all. 

Vex (and probably all the others) had the luxury of sleeping in.  
He'd even taken off his armor for once. Gave it and his undersuit a good scrubbing the night before (someone - he suspected Tony - had been kind enough to patch up the sheared off part, it even had padding for the sensitive end of his stumpy spur).

He'd slept in the nude, huddled under not one, not two, but three! thermal blankets. Kept him nice and toasty and relaxed.

Unfortunately, his body and mind were so used to waking up at the same hour he'd cracked his eyes open around the same time his alarm would have gone off.  
Vex had just yawned, stretched under his covers and rolled over before promptly falling back asleep.

He woke up two hours later and ate TWO disgusting MREs from his stash (ordered double rations), then had a shower and got himself and his gear ready.

Sylcus wanted them to touch down at dawn so they'd have a whole planetary day (9.4 galactic standard hours, according to Moore) to search for and hopefully use the Rigidium's QEC.

Not having much else to do, he got to the hangar early and re-cheked his rifle, pistol and ammo (for the fourth time, or was it the sixth? An even number anyway).  
He was done too soon and started absently rubbing at his calf when she walked in.

"Hi." she hesitated for a few moments. He waved back and Moore purposefully strode for the Brick, deposited a small box under the elastic band that held the small generator he'd packed earlier (always be prepared), and turned to walk away.

"That the dirt kit?" he found himself asking the obvious.

"It's a soil, mineral and organic material sampling and on-site analysis kit… well, most of one anyway, had to stuff some bio-mass tests from Alunia in there too."

"Right."

Vex coughed just to have something to do while Moore looked around aimlessly.

How did one speak to one's former annoyance-turned-actually-ok acquaintance?  
He used to be good at this whole talking thing.

"So… uhhh-"  
"I should-"

They both talked at the same time then stopped to stare and chuckle nervously.

"Go ahead." she made an open-palm gesture toward him.

Vex cleared his throat again. "Think you'll give that dinner-bell thing a chance?"

Moore shuffled, expression pensive.

"Wouldn't it be more like lunch for you guys?" she scratched at the back of her neck.

"Same difference."

"Why? Planning on making fun of me again?"

He knew he had it coming, but he still winced a little at her defensive tone.

"Can't make fun if you're actually good." he shrugged and watched the tops of her cheeks start to redden.

"… you really th-"

Her reply was muffled by the bay doors cycling open to admit a chuckling Tony and Fakra. The former stepped out of the way with a small 'ladies first' bow while the krogan just huffed and gently pushed him further away (the human stumbled, laughing even harder).  
Cols was close behind, followed by Sylcus, Hal and finally Ianni helping Lu in.

"I hope you all got a restful night, we've got a long day ahead of us." Sylcus propped her fists on her hips, unmistakeably side-eyeing Vex like he'd done something wrong again (admitedly this was the third time people had walked in on them being awkward, she kind of had a reason).

"Julie, you're in charge of the support team, keep an eye on us."

Moore nodded solemnly, all traces of the slight blush gone.

"Hal, you keep everything going."

"Yes ma'am."

Vex saw the young maiden look up, waiting for her turn but Sylcus was already motioning towards the Brick.

This was his time.

"Oi, Ianni, try to stop Lu from getting any more bruises from tipping over. She's purple enough as it is." he called from his perch, setting the pistol aside in case Lu threw a crutch at him.

"Try not to lose the other spur, assface!" Lu graciously offered.

Ianni nodded with a toothy smile. He felt a little sorry for her, the girl was a good nurse, but she was absolute shit with a gun. At least she had biotics to help her out in a pinch. Lu had told him about how the kid had helped shield them during the crash.

  
Sylcus took a look at the little kit Moore had left, then signaled them all to board. Cols was already heating up the engine and Fakra was strapped in.

He followed Tony and Sylcus, and soon they were off.

  
\---

  
Sunlight…

Actual sunlight.

He never thought he'd see it again, not like this.

He had half a mind to take his helmet off, feel it warm the plates of his face. Close his eyes and see the blue behind his eyelids.

But that would be stupid, so he settled for watching the sky as dawn broke over the unknown planet.

The Sun peeked over the horizon and the sky turned different shades of blue, green and yellow. Indigo streaks lighting it like vertical clouds in the magnetosphere. He almost wanted to take a holo.

Tony stepped up next to him. He could identify the same longing in the man's posture. Funny how that went across species.

His body felt heavy and sluggish. It would take them a while to adapt to the planet's gravity after all their light moonwalking.

The others were already talking shop, Vex turned his attention back to Sylcus.

"This'll be camp, we're far enough away to fall back if anything looks fishy. Cols, stay with the shuttle, keep an ear out if we call on the short-range channels." in case they needed a quick evac, but that went unsaid.

"You sure you can walk?" she directed at him.  
Vex nodded and stomped his injured leg to prove it (there was still some discomfort, but he'd live).

"We've got about nine hours of daylight. Anguisan - with me on the QEC. Fakra, Endrizzi, you're on scavenge duty. Food is prioritary but get whatever looks useful, we'll help you once we're done."

They waved their goodbyes at Cols, who was already back in the shuttle, confirming their sucsessful landing with base. He could faintly hear Hal and Moore's voices coming from the cockpit's speakers.

Fakra yanked the small generator he had packed from his arms before he had a chance to clip it to the harness secured around his torso and easily carried it on one meaty hand.  
He didn't have a chance to thank her before she walked off.

He hoped the Rigidium still had some power. QECs were notorious for their power draws and the generator only had juice for a few minute's worth of use.

They slowly made their way over the rocky terrain, careful when treading over brittle ground, avoiding geysers and shallow, bubbling puddles of mud. If Moore were here, she'd probably want to take samples of everything.  
The kit was left with Cols, who'd get the scientist some rocks and mud to analyze remotely.

They didn't see any signs of life. Just more rock in odd formations. Some pourous, some smooth and once they neared their destination some oval-shaped shiny white pebbles that reflected the sun harshly into their visors, almost seemed to glow from within.  
Those were the weirdest, there were track-marks behind them as though they'd been dragged.  
Some lines even intersected.  
He wondered if Moore would have found an explanation for the strange phenomenon.

At least it was warm here, he hadn't realized how much he'd missed a livable atmosphere. He wondered what would eventually develop here. Wondered if all the fallen ships - coffins now - would feed this new world, how they would change it.

  
They crested a hill of crumbly rock (almost chalk-like - their boots were dusted pale-yellow) and more of the odd travelling pebbles.

And there it was.

The giant, unmistakeable form of the Reaper that had chased them lay dead and half buried in the distance.  
Vex could see the ground had heaved in ripples around where it crashed. A long, deep and ragged gouge crusting behind it. Moore could probably calculate the angle it had crashed in from that.

It looked almost pitiful, scratched and dusted with the same yellowish chalk. The chasis underneath was dark enough to contrast with the surrounding landscape.

A few more moments of scrutiny revealed the Rigidium, small and pitifully broken a few clicks to the south. It was so thoroughly covered in the chalk, Vex had almost missed it.

It was a small miracle the Reaper hadn't completely crushed it.

It's navy color scheme was completely covered by the chalk, only the shape of the hull gave it away. The bold, strong lines the Hierarchy used for it's cruiser designs were still visible.

It looked like someone had dropped an unpainted plastic toy next to a dusty Reaper.

Vex moved first. No need to prolong their stay. Corpse or not, that Reaper could still be a threat.  
He felt Sylcus sidle up next to him. Her presence was reassuring in a way he hadn't expected.

\------

As soon as the sun had risen completely, they started feeling just how strong it was.

It wasn't like Palaven's dry heat.  
There was something moist and choking about the air here. And the hotter it got, the worse it smelled.

Even with the filters and Oxigen scrubbers, there was a faint acidic smell with an underline of rot to it. Like the particularly nasty stench of vomit after a long night of letting off steam in a seedy bar on Omega, only worse.

Tony gagged a few times but managed to keep his breakfast down.  
Vex was grateful, sometimes he was a sympathetic barfer.  
Nobody wanted to puke in their helmets.  
  
Fakra seemed almost at home and Sylcus only wiped at her visor to clear the dust.

He expected the smell of emerging life to be somewhat more pleasant… there go his childhood dreams.

  
The back of his neck burned unpleasantly and his suit, although cleaned the night before, also smelled like hot rubber and his own sweat.  
It would have been preferable to the stench creeping in from outside.  
The mix was almost unbearable.

They forged ahead, discrete coughs breaking the silence from time to time.

The Reaper loomed, larger and scarier the closer they got. Each step closed made everyone tenser.

With a jolt of disgust, he realized the smell of rot was coming from the Reaper… how much spoiling organic material did it have that it stank from so _far_ _away_…?

When they finally slipped under it's massive shadow there wasn't much relief. They skirted the very edges, seeking shelter from the relentless sun but not wanting to get any closer.  
The white pebbles ('shiny beans', as Tony called them) seemed to multiply and enlarge the closer they got to the Reaper. They crunched unpleasantly under their boots.

There was a strange vibration at the back of his head, making his teeth ache and his implant uncomfortably hot at the base of his skull. By the set of her shoulders, Sylcus felt it too.  
The other two looked just as disturbed.

Fakra spoke for all of them when she rumbled "I don't like this." low in her throat.

They hurried along and almost dashed the rest of the way to the Rigidium.  
Up close it looked even more damaged. There were deep ruptures along it's flank, melted damage from the Reaper beam and a mirriad of pockmarks from entering atmo with other debris.  
It had either fallen halfway to it's starboard side or the Pilots had turned the ship just in time to avoid breaking it into pieces.  
  
He didn't dare hope for survivors. It had been a month… surely any survivor would have tried to make contact somehow.

They all had a rough holographic map of a Hierarchy cruiser. Most were built based on similar, if not the same, blueprints.

There were holes all over the ship but none big enough to fit through.  
Apart from the gouges the Reaper had made, the Rigidium had lived up to its name and hadn't broken apart.

Sylcus was the first to find an airlock, they had to dig for it. Luckily, the chalk made the task easy.

Vex had a moment of apprehension. How thick _was_ this layer of brittle rock? Would the ship give under them like the Nefenia had?  
Suddenly, he wished they had taken Moore with them. She might have had an answer.

It took some finagling on his part, some good old-fashioned brute strength from Fakra and a solid burst of biotic energy from Sylcus, but they got it open after about twenty minutes of swearing.

They propped it open with some scattered pieces of hull plating.  
The interior door was easier to open, it was here that they saw this part of the ship still had power.  
It was a good sign.

Once inside, Vex used the manual override and left the airlock open on both sides. Just in case they had to make a quick escape again.

  
Inside the massive crew deck, the air tasted stale even through the helmets, but it was a good deal better than the boiling rot from outside.

They encountered the first dead body not ten feet away, illuminated by the faint glow of the emergency lights and laying face-down on what would normally have been the starboard side of the wall.  
The inertial dampeners must have given out, she'd actually gone through the padding and dented the interior hull. Probably turned to jelly in her suit.

  
Fully suited, the woman had no identity, no face. Vex would have liked to at least gather everyone's ID tags but they just didn't have the time.  
He would insist to return if they could.

For now, he and Sylcus made their way up into the command deck and Fakra and Tony continued towards the mess hall (a ship this big, with a capacity for 1200 crew needed a big mess, the design choices had placed it where all the people were).

  
  
Walking was a little precarious. The angle made is so they were picking their way between the floor and wall.

He hoped none of them tripped over any bodies.

  
He and Sylcus had to crawl through the emergency hatch, and an engineering duct (if only Hal could see him now), which were curiosly open - the emergency lockdown must have malfunctioned, but they made it.

Upstairs it was even worse.

The Reaper had aimed right for the command deck. There was a huge hole in the port side, the harsh light of mid-day reflecting off the chalk dusting everything, the cobalt of various surfaces sometimes shining through.  
The effect would have been blinding if not for their tinted visors.

The only bodies they found were inside the locked medbay (which they stripped of as much medigel as all four of them could carry) and the XO's quarters (where they found some high-grade rations and some Horosk that Vex swiped and placed next to the medi-gel).

The rest of the crew must have been sucked out into space.

  
Vex would have liked to head down to engineering and see the drive core but it would take too long. The brief checks over the XO's console showed most systems but emergency support down. They'd just have to live with that.

They went through the R&D lab and forced the QEC room's door open with their biotics since it was queued to the Captain's signature - who had been presumably spaced along with everyone else on this deck.

  
After almost melting their implants, they finally made it inside. Vex gently lay the small generator on the wall and took a moment to breathe. He wished he could clear the sweat pouring down his neck, it made the hide there rub uncomfortably with the undersuit mesh.

The QEC terminal was sideways.  
Maybe the Spirit of the downed ship was watching out for them because it was blessedly intact.

<<We've reached the QEC.>> Sylcus' voice over the long-range comm startled him out of his mental list of checks.

<<Good to hear from you, away team.>> Moore's sounded a little more muffled than usual. He'd have to look over the comm-array's actuator again. Maybe clear up the signal.

<<We're hauling as much food out as we can. Tenn, can you swing by later? Pick some of it up?>> Tony's voice was clearer.

<<Copy.>>

There was some muffled voices and static. He almost panicked they'd lost contact with the moon when Ianni's voice came in like she'd stuck her head in a box. <<Come onnnn, you promised…>>

He and Sylcus shared a look of confusion through their visors.

Moore cleared her voice, sounding closer.  
Tony sounded giddy when he whispered <<Oooh, nice one Ianni.>>

What were they even…?

Then Moore started singing.

Sylcus motioned for him to sit with her, leaning against the floor. They couldn't take off their helmets to eat and he suddenly remembered he was really fucking hungry.  
The suits still had water delivery systems and he saw her fiddling with the commands on her omni and chinning the button to release the water ration directly into her mouth from inside the helmet through the built in induction port.

He did the same, the water was tepid but welcomed.

Moore was still singing.

And yet again the lyrics didn't really make sense to him.

Who was Stella and why smell her?  
His translator told him a zephyr meant a breeze or the personification of a god of wind.

  
He stopped thinking and listened. This one sounded like a vaguely romantic lament too.

What was it with humans and weird, sad songs?

Still, it was kind of nice, if he ignored the confusing bits and just focused on her voice.  
He rose and faced the console.

"You got this?" Sylcus asked as he started fiddling with the interface. The angle was all wrong and he'd probably end up with a crick in his neck, back and shoulders but he didn't really have anything to hang off of.

"There's power." he murmured distractedly.

"Don't fry it." Sylcus tapped her foot. The little tap-tap of her claw on the wall was messing with his focus.

"Uh-huh." his attention was shifting to his task, the song made Sylcus sound less real. There was a pause and the voice only hummed and vocalized low and soothing.

"How long do you think it's gonna take?"

"Hmmm." he could hear the talking but the words didn't make sense.

There was a minute of beautiful humming as he wrestled with troubleshooting and Moore started adding incomprehensible lyrics again.

Distantly, Sylcus made an impatient noise and he heard her walk away after muttering something like "Fine, I'll check out the main battery."

\------

After an indeterminate amount of time while he worked to identify fried circuitry and replace some wires, Sylcus came back, head hung dejectedly.

"The hangar bay's been melted, nothing to salvage there. Couldn't even reach the main gun's battery, crunched to shit." she slowly shook her head, hands on her hips.

"Any luck on your end? It's getting dark."

Vex blinked, his eyes felt gritty, his back and shoulders ached like he'd been doing pull-ups all day and the back of his neck cracked uncomfortably. His implant still felt a little warm. The leg was uncomfortable too.

"It's not gonna blow up on us. But I'm not even sure we have anyone _to_ call."

"We can try."

<<Moment of truth people, patching you in.>>  
There was a click as Sylcus turned on her helmet mic to pick up external sounds.

Vex fiddled with the interface and set up the call to cycle from Hierarchy command or any available open connections.  
Last he heard, Victus was Primarch and he was leading the efforts on Earth.

Sylcus introduced her credentials. As Captain of the Agilis and Caballim of their unit, she had high priority clearance.

He prayed someone was listening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For someone he used to dislike, he sure is thinking about her a lot, no?
> 
> Oh, and if you want more OC turians/OC humans check out polyrythm


	8. I've got you under my skin

"This is Caballim Sylcus. Captain of the Agilis. My crew and I are stuck on an unknown planet with no navigation. Please respond." she had squared her shoulders and stood at attention as though expecting Victus to materialize out of thin air.

Nothing happened.

Vex exhaled loudly and tried not to devolve into swearing. Tony was doing it for him.

Sylcus repeated her plea several times. Each delivery clear and confident, but he could see her shoulders slump, her head bowing forward.

He wanted to smash the console to pieces.

He felt a little light-headed.

He needed air.

Vex slowly retreated from the room. Left Sylcus standing rigid and defeated.

Then there was a loud bang from somewhere above them and the walls vibrated faintly.

<<Who's blowing up the ship?!>> Fakra boomed over the radio.

<<Regroup, we need to investigate.>> Sylcus commanded.

<<Guys, I'm not picking up anything. Maybe you shouldn't go towards explosions and come back home?>> Hal fuzzed in.

<<No way, I need to _smash_ something.>> Fakra snarled with an evil hummed laugh.

Vex felt himself agree .

They waited for the other two and climbed through the hole on the side of the ship, careful not to slip over the now cooled ripples of hull.

The evening brought some relief from the scorching sun and they were mostly used to the stench by now.  
Waves of heat still danced over the ship's exterior hull like invisible flames. It made everything look like a dream, infinite stars twinkling above in unfamiliar patterns.

The moon was a pale semi-circle above him.  
  
The reflective nature of the chalky rock was making the ship and the Reaper behind them look like stranded luminescent creatures from the deep oceans of Kahje he'd seen a lifetime ago in a documentary.

Even the ground was a little sparkly.

Or maybe he was so tired and hungry he was hallucinating. His leg was hurting again.

Fakra's heavy footsteps banged in front of him.

He realized he was panting and struggled to regulate his breathing.

"Hey buddy, you holding on?" Tony placed a careful hand on his shoulder.

Vex took a deep, bracing breath.

"I'm fine."

Tony's body posture remained unconvinced, he stayed closer than necessary as they followed Sylcus and Fakra.

"Hey, pay attention." Fakra was pointing her shotgun at the hull they were balancing on.

Even in the semi-darkness, they could see a wobbly line of navy blue showing from under the yellow dust.

It was a trail.

\------

Traversing over decks was a lot easier from outside the ship.   
They followed the trail and reached what once was the hangar bay.

It was mostly scrap, like Sylcus had said.

Except for the shuttle sticking halfway out of an open airlock, pointing sternward.

"What the fuck." Tony eloquently added.

<<Away-team, what's your status?>> came Moore's anxious voice over the radio. The fuzziness was still bugging him.

Fakra forced the shuttle's doors open and revealed a padded cot, several water and ration crates stuffed in the front and pieces of armor stacked on the side. A helmet was hanging off a peg in the wall. There were several MRE wrappers strewn about, one half-eaten and discarded on the bedding.

<<Away-team, do you copy?>> she asked again, concern bleeding through clearly.

<<Doc, what are the chances of someone surviving down here? Without a helmet, I mean.>> Sylcus asked.

<<Uh, I don't... I… I've analyzed the preliminary data Tenn sent me. There's definitely all sorts of microscopic life out there. This isn't really my area of expertise but theoretically the air's fine, if a little hot…>>

<<Someone made it out alive?>> came Lu's voice, faint as if from the back of the room.

There was a click and he dropped before Sylcus had a chance to to finish yelling "GET DOWN!".

Another explosion - a flash grenade, he thought - rattled from inside of the shuttle and blew them away. Fakra took the brunt of it since she was closest.

Vex's ears were ringing and his head felt fit to burst. He struggled to rise from where he had fallen face-down before a booted foot stepped over the back of his neck and he froze.

"Don't move." a low voice ordered from above him, subvocals thrumming with unrestrained anger.

  
The man holding Vex hostage was middle-aged, tall, even for a turian, and extremely thin. He wore dark green markings that identified him as a fellow native from Palaven (not that it meant much, about 40% of the turian population came from there).  
His voice was brittle but determined as he reiterated his demand.

"I am Captain Liveria Sylcus of the the fourty-fifth platoon. I order you to stand down and let my soldier go."

"You're on my ship, Captain. Put your weapons down and take off your helmets!" Vex could see the muzzle of a rifle pointing right at his head.

"Who the hell are you and why shouldn't I _eat_ you?" Fakra groaned from where she was picking herself up.

<<Captain, I'm coming over.>> Cols added over comms.

<<Stay low. I'll handle it.>> Sylcus muttered.

"I am now the Captain of the Rigidium and I order you all to put. Your. Weapons. Down." the man above him was getting more irate and pressed harder on his neck.

Vex couldn't stop the helpless gurgle, he felt like the ship was swaying him, he was having trouble breathing again because of this moron.

"Okay, calm down." he heard Sylcus soothe, there was some shuffling and the clatter of something hitting the hull.  
"Put your weapons down, people."   
<<Trust me.>> she added over comms.

"Finally, some damn respect. No one on this ship ever does what I say, lazy slackers all of them." the man laughed and finally took some of his weight off Vex's neck.

"Hey, Anguisan. Remember Bekenstein?"

Finally.

"Wh-" the man didn't have time to finish his question as Vex grunted and, with failing strength, Threw the aggressor and sent him flying up while Sylcus caught him in a weak biotic field and wrenched his rifle away at the same time.

"You know, you _could_ have just talked to us." Tony pointed his pistol at the struggling man. He only managed to make himself flip in the air.

Once Vex righted himself, he saw Sylcus standing in front of Fakra, probably stopping the woman from turning their would-be jailer into paste.

Once the krogan was sufficiently placated, she turned to the 'Captain'.

"Now, lets see." she scanned him, her omni-tool automatically picking up his ID tag.

"Lieutenant Commander Darvinus Lent. Why did you attack us?"

The man, Lent (Vex didn't feel like he deserved a rank anymore), had stopped struggling and simply floated.

The biotic field would wear off soon. Vex readied himself to offer support.

There was something weird about Lent. He was dusty and dirty like everything else down here. An eerie, subtle shine faintly pulsed about him. It looked like it was coming from under his plates.

The dumbass was only wearing his undersuit pants, ripped off below the knees.

What was most curious was how skinny he was. He had access to plenty of food and water.  
It didn't look like he was starving himself.

Lent looked confused as he glanced around, as if not comprehending the situation he was in.

Then he started laughing like a lunatic.

The group exchanged curious glances.

<<Captain, I've reached your coordinates.>> Cols must have been hovering above them. Even with the clear sky, it was hard to spot him.

<<Keep close. We need to asses the situation.>>

<<Liveria, what's going on?>> Moore added.

"You should have listened to me!" Lent yelled.   
"Now you'll all DIE!" he started struggling again and pulled another grenade.

Did he have that stuffed down his _pants_?

Sylcus heaved and Threw him away while both of them built a small shield in front of the team.

The man blew up mid-air. This time it was a shrapnel grenade. Bits of metal were suspended in their shield. Their armor would have most likely gotten shredded from this distance.

Both turians were panting heavily.

Vex groaned and touched the back of neck, just under where his implant was overheating in his skull. It felt like it was melting a hole through his plates, the pain spreading in a rippling radius all the way to the backs of his eyes.

Sylcus seemed in much the same state, bent over and almost heaving.

<<Vex! you better not be dead! I swear to the Goddess I WILL find a way to get down there and kick your bony ass ba->>

<<We're all alive, _thanks_.>> came Tony's glib reply.

  
Sylcus was still breathing heavily, Fakra having lent and arm to prop her relatively vertical again.

Vex's knees suddenly gave out under him. His calf was burning.

He was pretty sure he felt blood trickle down.

Shit.

"Caballim..." he managed to grunt and clicked his general comm off, only using the helmet's speakers. "I think I tore my wound open."

His vision was getting darker, and it wasn't because the night was getting deeper.

"Fuck." Sylcus swore.   
Yeah, he'd be swearing too if he had any energy left.

"We need to head out. Let's climb back in, get our shit and move.   
On the radio she ordered. <<Cols, get ready to haul us and the supplies out.>>

Vex was faintly aware of Cols' curt "Copy."

He wasn't entirely sure who helped him down to the command deck again (probably Fakra, he owed her twice - no - three times now).

He did hear the garbled sound of someone speaking though.

A stranger's voice.

Dammit, another crazy survivor?  
  
He raised his head (when had he slumped to his knees?) and saw that everyone's attention was drawn to the R&D doors.

<<-tain Sylcus, do you copy?>>

Tony patted his arm and dashed forward to help Sylcus' wobbly form through the doors.

Vex was so tired, he lay down on the wall padding and heard Fakra rumble a pleased laugh. He'd never heard her this genuinely happy before, was there a party? He remembered the bottle of Horosk and wished he could take a swig.

His vision swam, his eyelids felt so heavy. He was drained, his head pulsated with pain and felt about three times bigger and all he wanted to do was take a nap.

It couldn't hurt if he closed his eyes for a moment, could it?

\---------

  
Vex woke with aching shudders.

It was all very familiar, except now he was being shaken violently by a… concerned sounding Krogan?

"Oi, Kid! Wake up! I did NOT drag your bony, plated ass down here just for you to die on us now."

  
He grunted and turned his head away from the source of noise. Why couldn't she just let him sleep this migraine off…

"I said WAKE UP!" the krogan yelled again and backhanded him across the face.

Some part of him realized she'd probably tried to be gentle but goddam, it felt like _truck_ hit him.

Vex spluttered and brought his hand up to stop any more hits from landing. Instead, he got pulled to his feet and shakily managed to mostly stand on his own.

His suit's automated medi-gel dispensers must have kicked in soon after he started bleeding. He could feel the adrenaline it contained waking him up. In absence of a suit breach, it sometimes took a while for the internal systems to detect leaking wounds.

Fakra pretty much carried him to the CommRoom.

Sylcus, leaning heavily on Tony, sounded tired and relieved as she conversed with… Primarch Victus?

Vex hastily tried to salute and knocked himself off balance. Fakra caught him and told him to sit still.

"Thank you, Primarch." she breathed.

<<It's my pleasure, Captain. The eggheads almost have you, stay on the line. I'll have them send you an updated star-chart in a moment. You say your ship is mostly intact?>>

  
"The Agilis is almost ready to go sir. My engineer says is just a matter of getting the VI in order and having navigation back online and some maintenance on the drive core."

<<What else can you tell me about the planet you're on?>>

"Honestly, sir. I'm not sure, our scientist didn't really have an opportunity to run tests. We almost got blown up by one of the Rigidium's senior officers not five minutes ago. He looked like the only survivor. I don't know if it's the planet or the Reaper but he was raving mad."

<<Reaper?>> Victus' tone darkened. He must have suspected some errant influence disturbing the man enough to make him want to kill them… just like they were.

Even dead, the Reapers were a threat.

"Yeah, crashed here after the red energy pulse fried everything."

<<Captain, you shouldn't spend more time than necessary down there. Go back to base once you receive our data packets and head to the closest homeworld. You'll have to rely on FTL, the Relays are down too. But we managed to make contact, there are survivors who might need your help out there.>>

"_Our_ help? Sir, we were calling _you_ for help." Sylcus sounded as shocked as he felt.

<<I'm sorry Captain, we have our hands full at the moment. You'll have to get yourselves out and go help whoever you can.>>

Sylcus nodded grimly.

Vex expected the situation to be shitty out there too, but to need their help? It was worse than he hoped but better than he feared at least.

There was a discrete trill from the console. Probably the data downloading. He could rip the memory core out of they didn't find a portable one. They needed the nav-data and functional VI to get the hell out of here.

It was remarkable how much Victus' people managed to salvage and rebuild already.

<<Excuse me, Captain, I'm needed elsewhere. If you require anything else, one of my aides can help you. Spirits guide your way.>>

Sylcus saluted and let the call drop.

There was a moment of contemplative silence when Lu came in over the long-range radio.  
<<Well… that was... _something_. I expected to feel better about this though. Why does it sound like we just got a job that doesn't even pay?>>

Sylcus sighed loudly, sounding strange and a little loopy coming both from outside his helmet and through the radio.

<<Let's pack up and get back to base. We'll discuss our next steps after some rest... I've had enough of this planet.>>

<<Captain… there's something else you should know…>> Moore sounded perplexed.

<<Of course there is.>> Fakra harrumphed.

<<I had Tenn run a couple of more tests on that yellow chalk-like dust and the white stones out in the fields after he landed and told me how strange it was.>>

<<And?>>

<<It's… I'm not really sure what it is. Definitely nothing like the rest of the samples… but it's no mineral. Lu can't tell me if it's a bacterial life-form or a fungus or moss, but it's very aggressive when presented with proteins.>>

  
<<And?>> Sylcus was getting impatient. She was probably close to crashing.

<<... is there anything left of Commander Lent?>>

The group shared another confused pause.

<<Spotted… parts… falling to ground. Investigating.>> Cols added over the sound of the shuttle moving above the exposed deck.

<<Y'know… the guy was kinda skinny for someone with a cruiser's worth of supplies.>> Vex mused.

<<… don't think the dust was… _eating_ him… do you?>> he could see Tony's rounded eyes through the man's visor. He sounded sick to his stomach again.

<<Last test. Hmmm... strange luminescence on plated skin. Harvesting piece of elbow...>> Cols informed them, sounding as though he was simply doing a routine check.

Fakra wasn't wasting time and started preparing the last of their salvage for pick-up.

Vex sat with his back to the padded wall and waited.

<<Hmmmm…>> Cols hummed again.

<<Use your words, please.>> Sylcus was now seated beside him and rubbing at her neck.

<<Results… _problematic…>>_

Tony swore.

<<You guys are gonna have to be quarantined once you get back up here...>> he'd never heard Lu sound so... listless.

Tony swore again and punched the floor next to him.

<<Have the cargo bay and the first storage room sectioned off. We need to be sure none of us are… a risk.>> Sylcus hung her head.

Vex let out an involuntary bark of laughter that startled everyone, even the krogan.

"What are the chances… we survive the War but die as dust-food?" he shook his head.  
"At least the Reaper'll be gone in time. It's like an all-you-can-eat buffet right?" unexpected silver lining.

A little fitting that the most innocuos looking thing could eat the damn monsters.

  
<<This thing...>> Lu radioed in, awed. <<I'm getting updated images from Tenn. It's… incorporated parts of other micro-organisms into itself.>>

<<It's evolving?>> Ianni gasped.

<<From what Tenn gathered, there's some similarity with the bacteria found in the mud-pools but…>>

<<Think it came from the Reaper?>> Ianni mused.

<<We can't know that for sure…>> Moore argued.

<<Do you see any _other_ spot on the planet lighting up?>> Lu asked, he could hear her nerves fraying.

There was another prolonged silence and some shuffling over the radio.

He didn't even startle at the muffled thump above them, expecting Cols' announcement of landing the shuttle outside. Fakra wasted no time in handing over the salvage.

Tony stood stock-still.

_Odd_.

"Hey." Vex stumbled up, his knees almost buckling. He used the floor to prop himself and half-shimmy over to the marine.  
"Tony, you ok over there?"

Getting no answer, Vex reached out to cautiously touch his shoulder, but before the tip of a gloved talon even hovered nearby, Tony shrugged away with a muttered "Don't touch me."

"C'mon, man, snap out of it. We're ok, we can figure this out."

He heard Tony swear inside his helmet, the sound was low enough that he couldn't make out any words, but the tone was clear.

The marine heaved a heavy sigh and finally turned his visor toward Vex, who was getting dizzy again.

Tony paced away, back stiff.

"Boss." he called from behind Vex.

It took a second for Sylcus to muster enough energy to reply a weak "Hm?"

"Boss. I can't come up with you."

Vex's knees finally gave out and he slid back down. He couldn't wait to get back to the moon and it's half-G, what was Tony even talking about?

"_What_?"

Fakra was done handing over supplies and watched as Cols jumped down to join them.

"I don't want to go crazy on you like that guy. You gotta leave me here."

"The hell you talkin' bout, kid?" Fakra grunted tiredly.

Tony was pacing back and forth, fists tight.

"I got hit." he stopped and showed the softer mesh on the inside of his thigh. There was a small scrape, traces of blood and medigel glistening in the weak light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's always a price.
> 
> Reapers are arseholes even when they're dead. They can indoctrinate just the same. I figure some particularly cool primitive life might be easy to corrupt for them.


	9. Sky full of song

The world came in sudden focus. 

The shrapnel from the grenade... something must have slipped.

Vex's head swam. He felt like puking, but there was nothing in his stomach to heave out.

No one spoke for what felt like an age.

"We're not leaving you behind." Sylcus almost whispered.

"You can't -"

"Shut up. I _can_. We'll figure something out. Keep you in quarantine in one of the other storage rooms. You're not staying down here with that _thing_." she pointed in the Reaper's general direction.

Vex let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. His nausea abated by a degree.

  
It took them another three hours of waiting for home-base to make the appropriate arrangements and have Cols and Fakra do another quick sweep for salvage. They couldn't take the fuel up with them just yet, but they got isolated tanks of it ready for a return.

Tony made another call to the Hierarchy and explained the situation to one of the Primarch's aides, then Sylcus was left alone to converse with the big man himself.

Vex wasn't sure what the decision was in the end, but he was reasonably certain he'd heard Victus mutter something obscene at one point and then order them to sort out the problem and head to Sur'Kesh first since it was in the closest system relative to their position and could possibly aid them.

Once they landed on the moon - everything, themselves included - would have to be cleaned and triple-checked, quarantined separately from Tony.

He didn't have the energy to contemplate the waiting in store.

Tony's would be the hardest.

The flight and docking passed in a blur of half-awareness. He and Sylcus were too out of it to really help, so they just stayed put in their seats and rested while the others prepared everything.

After another two hours of thorough decontamination and tests, they were finally allowed into one of the larger storage compartments next to the facility's hangar bay.

The reduced gravity was a blessing on his joints and aching leg.

He thought it would feel like coming home but it was just sad.

Tony was alone in an isolated chamber on the other side of the facility.

  
They forced themselves to eat then everyone was ordered to go to sleep while Ianni monitored their vitals from the other side.

He hadn't had a chance to speak to Lu yet which would normally have made him antsy but the second he lay dawn, he was out.

  
The morning was a mess of grogginess and confusion. He woke up scared and hyperventilating, clutching at his chest.

It took a few minutes to calm himself down enough to shakily rise to his feet and another half hour before he could eat anything. The high-grade rations tasted like dust on his tongue.

The intercomm beeped and Ianni's tired voice came through.  
<<… morning… I, uh. I left a kit in the airlock. You'll have to take blood samples and put it in the analyzer. It's keyed to our tools so we can see it.>>

Now that he wasn't crashing and in too much pain to think, he wondered how everyone had handled the situation upstairs this whole time.

He was suddenly grateful they hadn't brought Hal along.  
If he'd been there and got a suit breach…

He'd learned to be thankful for small miracles.

Cols returned with the kit and took it upon himself to play nurse.  
Vex wondered how Tony would manage this, the man had never been good with finesse.

  
<<Ok, this is _good_. I'm not seeing anything unusual.>> the maiden chirped with obvious relief.

"Endrizzi?" Sylcus asked.

<<… he… tested positive for the glow-bug.>>

"Glow-bug?" Vex echoed.

<<Yeah, Julie called it that after the first readings came in yesterday morning... it kind of stuck.>>

"Bit tame for a flesh eating dead Reaper spawn abomination though."

<<... I...>>

"Damn thing's haunting us from the grave." Fakra snarled.

Vex nodded and picked at his loose clothing. It was a large miner's uniform, cut up to allow his cowl and spurs to poke out.  
Annoyingly short in the sleeves and too tight around the shoulders for him but better than nothing.

He felt naked without his gloves though.

Still, he was better off than Sylcus and Cols who were swimming in their own loose, hideously orange uniforms.

Fakra actually looked halfway decent in the sheets wrapped around her bulky form.  
She looked like a priest.  
Or a ghost.

"We still need to be quarantined. We can't risk passing this on to everyone else."

<<You have enough resources to stay there for a week, if none of you show any symptoms, you should be good. Not like the rest of us can get out of here without you. We'd be dead soon enough too.>> Lu monotoned.

The implication that they could get out without Tony sent a hot jolt of anger surging through him.

"Have some fucking _tact_, Lu."

The intercomm garbled as if she wanted to say something back but decided against it.

  
The week passed agonizingly slow.  
Every day was a slog to go through.

None of them spoke much.

He would have traded the high-grade rations and unlimited sleeping time for some work. _Anything_! Even crawling through ducts was better than this.

He passed the time by working out and punching the pillow he'd tacked to one of the crates of food crowding the place.

The singular highlight of their evenings was Moore singing over the intercomm. It was the only time they even heard her.

Later in the week, while he was wiping the sweat from his brow after an intensive set of reps and talking to Lu in low tones over the intercomm, she told him all the songs were requests from Tony.

Something about that made his gizzard clench. Neither of them would be taking this well.

He knew the two humans were close. Sometimes he wondered of there was something more to their relationship but they never smelled of each other whenever they all met up for dinner back in the good old days so he'd never thought much of it.

  
On the final evening, she sang something about a sky full of song.  
Another blasted nonsensical lament that was oddly enchanting and depressing at the same time. It sent chills down his spine.

He fell asleep remembering how her voice broke halfway through it.

In the morning, they ate the last of their rations and drank the last of their water and took one last blood-test.  
The room looked strangely diminished and too spacious with every crate stacked neatly inside each other.

Vex felt himself breathing freely for the first time once he exited the airlock. He never thought he'd miss having a hallway.

Seeing Tony through the observation window of his room was a blow.

The formerly muscular marine looked thin and brittle. Like something had started melting the meat off his bones.

His face looked more skeletal, deepset eyes burning with a subtle unnatural glow.

His previously tan skin, only a few shades lighter than Moore's, was washed out and clammy.

He didn't display the same luminescence on the outside like Lent or the aggressiveness. The bug probably affected various species differently but it was obvious he was sick.

He chuckled and greeted them all with cheer though. Something was still absent about him when he waved them closer.

They tried making smalltalk but no one's heart was really into it.

<<No need to look so glum people. You've gotta get in gear and haul ass outta here.>>

Vex, Sylcus and Lu cringed collectively. The others had either opted out of coming in the first place, or in Cols' case - skid back and power-walked to the head (likely for some light heaving, the salarian wasn't the type to completely lose his breakfast).

Moore was stuck to the window, palm splayed as if she could touch him through the thick, reinforced plexiglass.

"We can't leave you alone. I'll stay with you." she mumbled into the microphone.

<<Like fuck you will!>> he shouted and Moore curled in on herself.

Tony's eyes cleared of anger and he got closer to the window, touching where her hand was. He looked like he was struggling to stay focused.  
<<Julie… _please_... I need you to make it out of here...>> he begged and Vex had the urge to excuse himself.

He sensed the others retreating too. Sylcus already had her planning face on. Knowing her, she was probably thinking of a way to get them out as fast as possible and return with help, but Vex knew it wouldn't be long now.  
Tony wouldn't be so desperate to get them moving otherwise.

His dying friend had asked them to do something and he'd make damn sure they would.

\--------

It was aproximately another week of planning, hard work repairing the Agilis and frayed nerves before they were close to ready.

They took another trip to the planet to pick up the fuel tanks and pry the QEC out of the Rigidium's systems after updating Victus on the bug situation and that they were mostly alive.

Then they packed it in the ship after a thorough decontamination and testing (Sylcus wanted to have the salarians overhaul the ship and integrate the QEC. If they were gonna help anyone, they needed a steady means of communication. Might as well grab the first one available).

He endured the agonizing days of watching Tony slowly get consumed from the inside out before they were truly ready to leave the moon and the cursed planet behind.

They'd even packed the geth carcass up to take with them because Tony had insisted.

When the time for goodbyes came, Tony was half his former size and tended to rant at anything and nothing.

Hal had programmed the isolation room's airlock to cycle open once they were off the moon. It would release Tony, and the bugs, into the facility's open air.

There wouldn't be much left for the freaky things to consume once they left. Tony had enough food and water to last him a few days but after that… well… Vex had left the man a way out in the galley.

The whole team gathered in front of the dying man's chamber, laying various items beside the airlock for him to find once he got out.

Hal had left him a high-powered radio he'd cobbled together from salvage, so they could talk to him on the way out.

Fakra had spray-painted a crude human shape on the wall, so he wouldn't be lonely.

Lu and Ianni sacrificed some of their limited pain medication and the chocolate bar they'd been saving for a happier occasion.

Sylcus had nothing to give but a respectful salute and a bow, Tony saluted back in the human fashion.

Vex had already left him the pistol and a heat-sink. All he could give now was a salute and nod farewell to his friend.

Moore went over to place her hand on the glass one last time and the rest turned away.

<<Yo, Vex. Hold on a sec.>> Tony's voice had changed too, it was gravelly and stained by repeated coughing.

He waited for Moore to thump her forehead on the glass over Tony's chest and walk backwards.

He should have expected it, but he was suprised to see her crying.

Vex turned away, unable to look at her, subvocals announcing his own grief.

"I'm here." he choked out.

<<I had a brother.>>

Vex almost replied with a promise to find him before registering the past tense. He settled on nodding.

<<He was _such_ a nerd… always had his nose buried in some book.>> Tony's eyes sparkled with his old self, no trace of grief. His eyes, sunken and feverish, had a far-away look to them.

<<Dad would take us to the beach when we were young and I always got stuck on watch-Luca-duty. He'd read somewhere that you could tell the difference between a rock and a fossil by licking it so if he got half a chance he'd lick any old stone or shell… the brat…>>

Vex waited, he'd never been a particularly patient man but he felt like he could stay and listen to his friend talk all day.

<<A-anyway… after I enrolled, he went and got himself a nice geophysics degree. Worked with Julie for five years before… _before_.>>

Vex nodded his understanding and held back his curiosity. So that's how they'd known each other so well.

<<Luca always had trouble with other people, but Julie, she's good. Practically family. She was there when…>>

Vex frowned and looked at the floor to allow Tony to wipe his tears in peace.

<<She was there when I couldn't be and now I can't be there for family _again_… Vex, I know this is a lot, and you've already got family to watch out for but ->>

"I'll look out for her. You have my word."

The man let out a sudden bark of laughter and Vex feared it was another episode. He'd been having more and more of them.

<<That's good too, but she can look out for herself pretty well.>> Tony coughed, thick and phlegmy sounding.  
<<Just... just talk to her sometimes… she gets lost in that big head of hers more often than not. It takes a while to coax her out, but you just gotta be persistent. And don't let her blame herself for me. She'll think she should have stayed.>>

"I... don't kno - I can try." hesitating wouldn't help now. Just agree and figure it out later.

<<Good… good…>> he sounded more tired than usual.  
Vex tried to imagine how he'd react to this situation and came up blank.

<<You better make it out of this.>>

"We'll do our best."

<<And don't come back, this place is cursed.>>

Tony nodded, stepped back and saluted.

Vex returned it once more and left. Each step echoing like funerary song.

It was time to leave this tomb once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooph...
> 
> Work has been beating my ass this week so I don't know if I'll have another chapter ready this weekend (got other stuff to do too) so I guess I'll see y'all next week!   
Have some angst to chew on for now.


	10. Hallelujah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> !!!!!!
> 
> *Trigger warning for suicide about halfway through*
> 
> !!!!!!

Embarking on their new mission was a mostly silent affair. Final checks were completed and Cols started warming the Agilis' core up for departure.

The interior was crammed with supplies and every bit of salvage they thought might be useful. All their stuff was packed in giant mag-crates or locked in by meshes of stress-resistant polymer, kept in place by electro-magnetic clamps.

Hal said it looked like home.   
Vex felt sorry for the kid, he hoped not all quarian ships were as oppressively cramped as the poor Agilis was now.

They'd even brought the shitty rover in, it was only good for kind-of-slow transportation after landing, but it was better than nothing.

The geth had been crammed in the engineering subdeck's tool cabinet (Vex had a BIG tool cabinet which had regretably lost most of its content over time once the war started).

He hoped he'd be able to sleep in there, knowing he had a geth corpse in the closet.

Vex was heading up to the mess, having finished strapping in all his tools and checked the gun racks for the third time when the take-off announcement was made.   
He found most everyone else had gathered and Sylcus was already heading for the cockpit.

Moore was the only one missing.

He sat at a table and felt the ship move the slightest bit, artificial gravity taking over.   
The inertial dampeners were working like a charm.

That, or Cols had an extremely light hand.

It was a good sign, their former pilot would have been satisfied.

There was a slight lurch and increased gravity as Cols compensated for the magnetic field fluctuations that Moore had recorded and build a simulation for.

Tony must have been free of his room by now.

The comms clicked on again and Sylcus came on.   
<<This isn't how we thought we'd be leaving.>>

Ianni was looking up at where the voice was coming from the mess speakers, her eyes were watery.  
Hal was uncharacteristically still, slumped in his seat.

<<But we have a new mission. Let us honor all those who couldn't make this flight by helping whoever else we can.>>

Lu held his hand, grip hard enough to bruise. Nothing but calm showed on her face.

Fakra harrumphed and the chair she was sitting in creaked ominously as she leaned back.

The comm clicked again. He'd heard Moore had promised one last song for Tony while they were prepping for FTL. This must have been Sylcus patching the mining facility in.

There was a soft, wet sound then an inhale and Moore began.

Shaky and reedier than usual at first, but her voice got stronger as it echoed down the whole ship. He could almost feel it vibrating through the floor and up his bones, making his eyes feel gritty. He closed them.

Some sort of religious song, he'd never heard Tony mentioning any particular faith before.

His nose itched. He sniffed to clear it.

Ianni was openly weeping now, face buried in Hal's shoulder and tears trickling down his suit, managing to hold back her sobs with silent hiccoughs.   
The young quarian had only draped an arm over her back. The light at his mouth flickered on and off but no sound came out.

Moore's voice wobbled a couple of times, but she finished without pausing overlong or her voice breaking. The last part was almost whispered and she closed her connection after another deep, wavering sigh.

There was a long pause of deathly silence, punctuated only by radio fuzz.

<<Godspeed.>> Tony urged.   
Then a loud bang startled them all out of their seats and the comm clicked off.

He'd done it on purpose. The bastard had killed himself for all to hear.

Their last conversation floated back to him all of a sudden.  
He'd made sure they had nothing to come back to. Made them listen to it.

The shock of it had stopped Ianni from crying, at least.

The FTL warning sounded and they were enveloped by the elongated lights of passing stars.

\----------

  
Life aboard a crowded ship was never easy. He'd gotten used to his old team pretty quickly, but now it felt like pulling teeth.

Everyone was either sad or angry or both.

Sylcus was her usual, proffessional self, maybe a little quieter, maybe a lot less prone to smile. But she was keeping it together.

Fakra had reverted to monosylabic answers and silent contemplation.

Cols was permanently affixed to the pilot's chair. Did the guy even take bathroom breaks?   
Vex knew Salarians needed less hours of sleep but the geezer must have been napping there too, because he was never down in the crew quarters.

Not that Vex himself spent much time there anyway. It turned out he could sleep just fine in the engineering sub-deck on his dingy little cot, hidden geth corpse be damned.

Lu spent most of her time in the medbay or badgering him.

Ianni would huff and puff and generally pretend to be cheery when she came to drag Lu off for physical therapy every day.

Lu had taken the casts off.

Her fingers would never be the same, she tried to hide them with gloves but even so, they were obviously crooked. He didn't comment or look at them.

Hal was slightly less fidgety and a lot more serious. They'd work together on ship maintenance and he wouldn't even crack a joke about turian-designed ducts being just as wide as everyone else's or tease him about always banging his fringe on the underside of the railguns panel, or… anything…

Moore's short stint as the group's singer had abruptly ended.

He'd tried talking to her a couple of times. Even though he was still mad at Tony, he _had_ promised. She'd mostly ignored him until she snapped at him on the third try. He figured she was just not ready to talk and he'd try again after a nice cool-down period.

She was hiding in whichever room was otherwise unoccupied and doing whatever the hell she did when she wasn't contributing to ship maintenance. Probably brooding.

  
Life support was usually abandoned, most of the systems were automatic and the little cubby was only good for monitoring shipwide health. She hid there the most.  
People had learned to not check it anymore.

Even though there were only eight of them on a ship that could hold ten, Vex felt stifled. He almost wished the geth would turn back on just to have someone new to talk to.

He could almost feel the presence of those they'd lost along the way.   
Clauthus, Sperr, Eraslin, Torkarian, Panaiten, Cesero, even Ixen who was MIA and Herax who had died after he'd barely taken his own command on another ship - they had all been good soldiers and better people than himself.

He wondered why he got to live out of all of them.

He was getting antsy and tired of the same new faces in the cramped ship filled with memories of the old ones. He'd started having bad dreams where bits of memories would mix up and the dead became the living while the living faded into familiar turian features.

The most recent dreams had featured Tony looking angry and emaciated with a dripping bullet hole in his head. Eyes shining husk-blue and arms turning rigid and plated, the same tawny color as Ixen's. He hoped she hadn't suffered a similar fate.

It was after the fourth reiteration of said dream that he bolted up from bed and almost tumbled to the floor.

He was thirsty and dammit, he'd forgotten to bring a bottle down again.

He made his way up to the mess, nodding at Fakra who was prepping the cables for the next static discharge in a couple of hours. They'd have to make their first pit-stop at one of the charted (and hopefully still functional) resupply stations. Those were mostly automated so they shouldn't have any surprises (he'd had his fill of those).

Moore was bent over a datapad at the small table in the mess, customary mug of steaming water beside it.

He didn't announce his presence, merely grabbing a bottle from the fridge and sitting in front of her. She ignored him.

"Good morning to you too." he muttered and tipped his head back to gulp his water.

"There's no morning in space." she muttered back.

"Ah, she speaks!"

She went back to ignoring him and bowed her head over the pad more.

"What you got there?" he leaned forward.

"Nothing."

"It's definitely _something_." he placed his hands on the table and brought his head closer.

"None of your business."

"Now that just makes me curious." the back of his neck gave a bothersome twinge as he was bent all the way to her level, he was practically laid out on the table.

"Tough."

"Anyone ever tell you you're antisocial?"

"Anyone ever tell you you're annoying?" she finally looked up to give him a nasty glare. It was the most emotion he'd seen from her in a while.   
He was close enough to notice her eyes were't just brown, they had tiny dark and light amber flecks spattered about. They were actually kind of pretty.

"Couple o'times." he pushed off, the proximity getting a bit too much for his comfort zone after the unexpected revelation.

"Can't take a hint either." she mirrored him and crossed her arms.

"And what hint would that be?" he set his hands back on the table.

"That no one actually wants to talk to you." she shrugged, tone saccharinely fake.

"_You're_ talking to me right now, aren't you?" he inched closed to the datapad.

Her brows came together, and her mouth opened to protest "That's-"

"A-ha!" Vex crooned as he snatched the abandoned datapad and rose from his seat in one smooth motion. Turns out he still liked messing with her, and if it distracted her from Tony…

It took her about half a second to realize his deception as she glanced back down then up at him. It was too late, he was already reading it.

Moore hastily got up and scrambled over the table to get to him, spilling her mug of warm water in the process.

"Give it back!" she whined as she jumped after the stolen datapad.

Moore was relatively tall for a human woman but Vex was just an inch over the average for turians and his arms were way longer than hers. It was no competition, even if she jumped as high as she could, she'd never reach it.

He tilted his head back and read from the pad. "Shalei reached for her shotgun and pumped it once. `Say hello to my big friend.`???"

Vex grunted as Moore elbowed him in the side. He pushed her away by the face to make her miss the second swing.

"What is this?" he scrolled further but didn't recognize anything from what he read of the Fleet and Flotilla accompanying books.

He didn't get a chance to ask anything else or uncover the mystery because Moore tripped him, hooking an ankle behind his good knee and pulling, making him lean forward to avoid falling and crashing into her.

She used the opportunity to grab onto the front of his cowl and use it for leverage while jumping for the pad again.

He twisted away at the last moment and side-stepped her.

"Nice try." he grinned and immediately ducked as she kicked the metallic mug with unsettling accuracy right at his face.

"What the hell is going on here!" yelled Sylcus who had somehow materialized out of thin air.   
They froze and a second later Lu wobbled out of the med-bay.

_Wait… were they both…_

"Vex, really?" his cousin leveled her best 'you disappoint me deeply' look at him. The very same from his childhood.

"He stole the datapad you gave me." Moore declared.

"Vex… _really_?" Lu groused again.

"You gave her this?… Did you write it?"

Sylcus was already walking away towards the galaxy map and rubbing at her forehead.

"Yes, I gave it to her and I would appreciate you giving it back. And no, I didn't write it."

"Who did?"

Moore snatched her pad out of his lowered hand while he was distracted. "Hey, I would have given it back, no need to be so violent…" he mumbled and massaged his wrist.

Moore stuck her tongue out at him and also vacated the mess.

"Hal was bored so he wrote some chapters." Lu shrugged. "I asked him if we could have a turn and he agreed. That kid is way too shy about things he's good at though..." Lu scratched her crest.

Hal? Wrote fiction? Fleet and Flotilla fiction?? And Vex wasn't _invited_???   
He felt slighted.

\----------

Two hours later, he'd found Hal fiddling with his omni-tool and sidled up to the young man.

"So. You never told me you liked writing."

"Huh? What? _Me_!? No."

Vex gave him his hardest stare, the one he reserved for assholes trying to pick fights with the wrong guy, angling his head down at the shorter boy just so.

"Ianni insisted, ok? She saw me writing and begged to read, it sort of snowballed after that!"  
Worked every time.

"Never lie to my face again." Vex huffed as Hal nodded vigurosly.

"Have a copy ready by dinner."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Agilis Cabal crew:
> 
> Helia Ixen - Cadet, MIA
> 
> Daxius Clauthus - Pilot, KIA (non-combatant)
> 
> Atavi Sperr - XO, KIA
> 
> Cartas Eraslin - Security Officer, KIA 
> 
> Artem Torkarian - Chief medical Officer, KIA (non-combatant)
> 
> Tiberia Panaiten - Gunnery Officer, KIA
> 
> Vimas Cesero - Petty Officer, KIA
> 
> Adrius Herax - former XO, Captain of the Secandius, KIA


	11. Sing, Lola

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope ur ready for some very mild lemonade.
> 
> (Nothing explicit, but you've been warned)

It was thus that the entire crew got involved in reading Hal's works, he even had some original stories that were pretty damn good in Vex's opinion. Bit heavy on the romance (which he skipped) but the action scenes and scientific parts were really interesting and well written.

He'd never had imagined the Krogan was so good at literary reviews either. She would corner Hal and impart her wisdom on him every now and then, only to leave him flustered and amazed with a grunt and a nod.

It was the most fun they'd had in months, then again, they were stuck on a ship in the middle of nowhere with nothing much to do, they would have been entertained by watching palaveni dart-slugs crawl over moss at this point.

Moore had even started joining them for each meal again, in stead of scurrying away in her hidey-hole.  
Lately he'd see her fiddle with something red and square, pulling it out and shoving it right back in her pocket every time she thought no one was paying attention to her.

"Hey Moore, wanna share with the class?" he nodded at her and leaned over the table to get a better look at her pocket. She covered it ineffectively with a small hand.

With all the attention fixed on her, a red blush creeped over her cheeks as she gave him another baleful frown.

"It's..." she pulled the rectangle out but he didn't recognize the markings.

"You've had a deck of cards this _whole time_!?" Lu erupted and lurched over the table to stare down at the offending item now tightly clutched in Moore's hands.

"Um, ye-yeah…"

"What were you waiting for? Did you want me to start crawling up the walls? Deal us a hand! I love strip poker!"

Vex massaged the softer skin at the back of his neck. Yeah, he remembered a couple of times when he'd visited Lu on shore-leave and she'd been mostly disrobed and busy playing something with cards. He usually didn't stick around for long, and refused to be dealt in.  
Turians were fine with nudity on ships, it wasn't a big deal - but he was particularly eager to _never_ see his cousin, who he'd known since infancy, in any state of undress and flirting the purple off her ass.

He'd benefitted from soothing some of the losers later though.

Hm, good times.

"Tony told me to take them." Moore answered and squashed all his fond memories to dust. Hal visibly cringed and Ianni, who had held an arm out to Lu, was stuck like a statue.

Lu paled and sat back down.

Vex looked to every down-turned face and made eye-contact with Sylcus who nodded.

"He loved strip poker too." he stated and settled back in his seat, taking another bite of his ration and almost savoring it.  
"You shoulda' heard all his ridiculous stories about it. Man was a bigger player than Lu here." he pointed a thumb at said asari over his shoulder.

"Hey!" she protested weakly.

"I think I remember waking up because you two were making such a racket." Hal hummed.

"That's what you guys were talking about? _Ugh_." Sylcus groused.

"Why did he never bring them out though?" Ianni asked.

"They… he said they were a present from Luca." Moore answered.

Vex didn't have the chance to slap a hand over Lu's mouth before she asked "Who's Luca?".

"He was Tony's brother." Vex answered for the human and the table went still again with a mumbled curse from Lu.

Moore stared at the pack for a few moments, then nodded as if making up her mind, opened it and started shuffling the cards. He could see they had a seashell motif on the back.

"… but he told me to take them for a reason. I think you're right. Who wants in?" Moore rose and made the cards jump from one hand to the other, surprising everyone.

There was a chorus of agreement around the table, the only ones not participating were himself and Hal, who didn't know how to play (or could strip) and would observe and learn.

They didn't start off with the stripping right away though. The first game was a warmup to ease them in where the Krogan ended up winning with two pairs. The laminated playing cards looked like chips in her big claws but she was so gentle handling them she hardly left a dent.

The second game was a little more serious, but without any real stakes yet. Sylcus won it with an unexpected straight flush.  
She denied being lucky at Ianni's accusation and smiled for the first time since they'd left the moon.

The third game was when the first real bets started. They didn't have anything to bet but their own clothes (credits were meaningless to them now, rations weren't allowed and no one wanted to bet whatever trinkets of their former life they had left).  
And so, their first game of strip poker got started in earnest.

Hal lamented never being able to play when Ianni lost and took her shoes off.

Then Sylcus did the same, flexing her toes and sighing in obvious pleasure.

A lot of time and discarded articles of clothing later, it got awkward (for him) when Lu was down to her underwear (at least she had a bra and boxers on).

He never thought he'd see a naked krogan, but there it was.

He'd seen shirtless salarians before, though Tenn didn't seem to happy about losing his shirt to Moore. They were the most dressed of the crowd and it seemed like it would be a battle between them once Lu folded.

"Damn, Moore, you've been holding out on us with your mad Poker skills." he noted and she just smiled faintly.

"Yeah, where did you learn to play so well?" asked Ianni from where she was hiding behind her seat. She'd had to fold when she was down to her underwear. Sylcus nodded next to her, she had done the same once she was down to her pants (he'd always found other species obsession with undergarments odd, most turians didn't have useless articles of clothing like that - though he had seen a few Fornax articles with… interesting pictures of turian women in 'lingerie').

Moore shugged and didn't look up. "Just picked it up along the way.

"Know any more card tricks?" Fakra had lost completely. She was sitting in her chair, buck naked, sipping at a bottle of water. Vex only looked at her from the chin up.

"A few." Moore answered mysteriously.

Tenn pulled his last card and let out an excited "Ha!" then spread out his four Queens.

Moore showed her four Aces and he cursed. It was the first time Vex had ever seen the old salarian so invested in something. Aparently he had a competitive streak.

Lu glanced between them and demurely dropped her straight flush.

Tenn swore again and took his pants off, ropey muscles of his thigh bunching up in annoyance as he tapped his foot.

He folded at the next opportunity, to keep his stretchy underthings on, and accepted the conciliatory water and nod from Sylcus.

Unexpectedly, it was down to Moore and Lu. Both had looks of intense concentration on their faces.  
Until Lu winked salaciously and ruined the effect.

Moore remained stoic.

He hoped the human would lose, mostly because he knew Lu played for keeps, was an extremely sore loser and he wanted to keep his eyes untainted.

Lu won the round and whistled as Moore took her shirt off, showing the smooth expanse of soft olive skin he doubted anyone here had seen before, now that he thought about it.

Even on a small ship, Moore somehow timed her showers in such a manner that she was always alone.

He wondered if all human skin shined that way under light and his thoughts got a little lost as he trailed the smatering of dark dots all over her back. She had a couple of dots on her face too, but this was different. Were all humans spotted?

"Better undo your buckle, Julie, cause I'm stealing those pants!" Lu jeered. She was having so much fun, she wasn't even trying to hide her ruined hand anymore.

She pouted when she only got a raised brow in reply.

He crossed his ankles and fiddled with his omni-tool, he'd been taking notes on how everyone played - no reason not to be prepared next time, now that he knew the rules.

The next round had Moore winning by a measly pair which had Lu promptly take off her bra and Vex looking away as she arranged her… _assets_.

Breasts never did anything for him when he'd had his few encounters with asari (not that he didn't pay attention to them, he was a gentleman after all), but these belonged to his cousin and they absolutely _repulsed_ him.

"Oh man up, you big baby!" Lu laughed at him and continued her game while staring her opponent down and making sure her chest was perfectly positioned over the table edge and squeezed between her arms. Distraction tactics.

He glanced at Hal out of the corner of his eye, the boy was completely disinterested and only marked another win for Moore on the scoreboard while writing something on his omni-tool.  
Oddly enough it was Sylcus and Fakra who were still looking on with rapt attention.

Tenn had already excused himself with a cough and left to check on the cockpit (he totally ran away in defeat).

Lu's distractions must have worked because Moore lost the next round and she had to discard her pants. Even more smooth dotted olive skin was exposed to the world, covering unexpectedly long and well-muscled legs.

The next game was the scariest, with long pauses and mumbled curses from Lu.

  
Moore had a very good neutral-face, he'd been looking and hadn't noticed any obvious ticks. She still had some subtle tells, like tensing her calves and curling her toes whenever she got a bad card, or shifting in her seat and rubbing her knees together when she picked up something useful.  
Smart that she kept it all under the table.

He was startled out of his analysis of the way her hips flared out from her tapered waist and how the latter tensed when she supresed a laugh by Sylcus shoving a bony elbow into his side. He was lucky he hadn't participated and was wearing all his clothes, she might have scratched him with her elbow spur.

He gave her an equally hurt and puzzled look and she shook her head then whispered "Stare any harder and you'll burn a hole through her."

His stunned silence and gaping expression elicited another rare snicker from his CO.

He didn't even have a chance to protest his innocence when Lu rose from her seat primly and shucked off her boxers, spinning them on a finger a couple of times for good measure before throwing them at Moore's laughing, blushing face.

Then she turned, giving everyone a generous view of her ass, while Vex covered his eyes, and sauntered (mostly limped) back to the medbay.

Vex was laughing along with the others at Moore fumbling to catch the asari's underwear before it smacked her in the mouth.  
She caught his eyes and gave him a rueful smile, apples of her cheeks popping up, those little depressions forming on both sides, and her eyes sparkling with mischief. Her hair had gotten loose sometime ago and now Vex understood why some humans wore it long. It framed her face in a dark, luscious curtain.

He frowned at himself once Moore got up and started gathering her bounty and pulling Fakra's gigantic shirt on to the amusement of all others.

Where had _that_ come from?

  
He got up and excused himself, he didn't need to ruin their fun with his shifting moods. He should check the kinetic barrier alternator anyway, it had a small modulation error of 0.03 last time he'd checked and he wanted to go over the mechanical components again before having Hal calibrate it once more.

\-----------

The next day, Hal kicked at his feet to get his attention and Vex almost strangled himself in a loose cable. He extricated himself while swearing and tried to wipe the smudges of grease off his face once he came out of the panel.

"_What_." he grumbled, subvocals growling in annoyance.

"I've been calling your name for a while, thought you'd suffocated in there."

Hal rested on one knee in front of him and tilted his head in the quarian way of showing curiosity.

"What's gotten into you?" the suspicion was evident in his voice.

"Can't a man fix his ship in peace? Get off my back." Vex realized this probably wouldn't help, but he huffed and grabbed his wrench to stuff himself back in anyway.

Hal stopped him with a gentle hand on his shoulder. He turned and sat facing the quarian.  
He didn't expect the clean rag running over his face, slowly wiping away the rest of the gunk on his plates.

Hal nodded as if he'd done a good job and neatly folded the rag then placed it in one of the many pockets on his waist.

Vex froze, uncertain.  
"You have such _striking_ markings…" Hal mused as his visor rose back to Vex.  
Quarians usually had a reduced personal bubble, living so crowded with each other as they did, but the kid was particularly close now. Vex could see his luminous eyes smiling behind his mask.

"Uh… thanks…" he coughed and shuffled back.

Hal rose and offered him a hand up. Vex took it and let the kid pull him upright. His back was kind of sore.

"Nothing's wrong… just... thinking."

"Oh nooooo, does it hurt?" Hal mimed covering his mouth.

Vex rubbed over the kid's helmeted head. The protective mesh of his suit was rubbery under his shawl. "Wise-ass."

"Wanna head up for dinner? Ianni convinced Julie to sing something again. The acoustics are better in the mess." Hal bounced on his feet.

How could he deny the kid?  
Vex decided to chalk up the whole thing to running dry for so long, the stress of the war and surviving after it. Of course it did strange things to his head and other body parts.

It'd pass in a day or two now that he had his head on straight again.

  
That evening, over the ship intercomm, Moore sung the first happy-sounding song he'd heard from her. An ode to singing itself. It even got Ianni humming along as she started fixing everyone plates of rations (she'd insisted they could at least pretend to be civilized and eat off plates).  
They all waited for Moore to join them before digging in.

\-----------

  
Life was better now. They were halfway to their destination and had sucessfuly resupplied (dead bodies found on the sations aside) and discharged the core twice already. It was another week before they had to hit another station and nothing on the ship needed much tending.

They had a lot of down-time too. Sylcus and Lu taught Moore how to play Skillian Five. She got scary good at it in a short amount of time, but was still mediocre compared to himself, Lu and Tenn (who apparently still held a grudge and doggedly tried to make Moore lose every time he had a turn ahead of her, even to his own detriment).

They'd also played poker again, where he had lost badly to Hal, who had picked the game up faster, and refused to take off his pants at the cost of cleaning the head in the quarian's stead for a month.  
Vex suspected he counted cards but the kid ended up losing later in the game so maybe he, Vex, just sucked.

Moore's unabashed laughter whenever she won or scored against Tenn still made a little something tingle in him, but he had mostly tamped it down. He was careful to avoid looking at her too long during the games that involved stripping and generally kept a low profile.

The fact that she had a dry sense of humor and delivered punishing one-liners didn't help.

Sylcus had given him a few pitying glances which he staunchly ignored and she blessedly didn't say anything. He would crack the hull open and bury himself in the ducts if she actually talked to him about… _this_… whatever it was.

It took him another couple of days, but eventually he was comfortable being around Moore enough to forget about the strange pangs of something.

He figured the loneliness must have really gotten to him back then and felt a rush of relief and, oddly, loss.

It was two days before they hit their next-to-last resupply station when Moore had been in a good mood and sang two songs for them.  
The first was a short asari limerick Lu taught her, filled with badly accented dirty words in an old but still used dialect that had both his cousin and Ianni giggling and almost sliding under the table while running out of breath.

The second one was another human love song about some spoiled woman named Lola.  
Her voice was particularly rough and throaty, long seductive notes had both asari sighing and Tenn looking uncomfortable.

He ate quietly while Lu badgered Julie about singing it again for her, but in private.

Vex ignored the spike of annoyance at his cousin. She'd gotten more and more brash in her flirting recently.

\-------------

  
Small hands tickled the underside of his fringe, blunt nails scratching at the softer skin there and trailing down his neck.

There was warmth above and around him and his own hands kneaded soft, supple flesh. Smoother than any asari's.

A low, throaty moan, very similar to a drawn out sigh he'd heard in a song once, echoed next to his ear. Then it hummed a laugh that sent shivers down his spine.

He moved faster, breath coming out in pants and the voice ululated in praises of 'yes' and 'there'.

He was lost in the sensation for what seemed like an age then-

The voice called out his name and told him she always gets what she came for.

Vex woke up with a gasp. He was a sweaty, panting mess.

He looked under the covers. Yep. That was definitely not his spur growing back.

He tried to calm himself, purposefully breathing deep and letting it out slowly, counting the breaths in his head to let his rapidly beating heart go back down to normal.

It wasn't working.

This hadn't happened in a very, _very_ long time. He felt a stab of anger at Moore before chastising himself for being a creep.

He hadn't forgotten his water this time and gulped it down greedily. It helped cool him down at least.

He threw the covers away, disgusted with himself. Normally he'd just take care of the problem, but it felt wrong to do so after dreaming about his human shipmate so he started doing reps to work off some of the tension.

After an hour, he pulled a pair of colorful shorts that must have belonged to Daxius and made his way up to the head on the crew deck.  
Oddly, he didn't feel self-conscious about using his dead pilot's clothes, the guy had always stolen Vex's new civvies whenever he went out on shore-leave before (and did Spirits knows what, or who, in them - Vex always made sure to disinfect), it felt right to have his stuff now. Dax would definitely appreciate the irony at least.

He didn't see anyone awake on the way up.  
Sylcus was probably sleeping in the Captain's room parallel to the medbay where Lu and Ianni usually were.

Tenn was probably in the cockpit.

He'd spotted Fakra's lumpy form sleeping on two cots in the cargobay.

He was pretty sure Hal slept under the railgun panel.

The doors to the crew-quarters were closed, he'd only been in there once to move his remaining stuff to the engineering subdeck.  
No one seemed to want to sleep in here anymore. The eight bunk-beds were always empty and neatly done whenever he caught a glimpse of them passing through.

He realized he'd paused in front of the door, it'd probably look weird if anyone caught him staring at an empty room in nothing but thin shorts and a towel thrown over his shoulder.

He took the remaining four paces to the bathroom doors which automatically whooshed open to reveal a very naked, absolutely drenched Doctor Moore under the running showerhead, looking back over her shoulder at him in mild surprise.

They both froze for a second before Vex backed out and let the doors close.

This definitely did not help him.  
At all.

She really did have quite a thin waist and a very round-  
_No_.

He grumbled a few choice curses and made to leave when the door to the head opened again and she stepped out, only wearing a towel around her torso, wet hair still dripping.

"Morning!" she greeted, sounding uncharacteristically chipper. "I appreciate the intention but you didnt need to leave."

He was having a hard time not taking that as a proposition, but he knew she didn't mean it that way, so he just nodded and sidestepped her to take his first purposefully cold shower _ever_.

He had a hard time getting beck to sleep after that. Mostly because he was afraid of another weird dream and also because managing crushing embarasment had never been his best attribute.

\-------

The next evening she sang 'Valerie' which made Lu swoon and the creeping anger come back.

He ate his dinner in silence and retreated early with the excuse of preparing his armor for hitting the resupply station the upcoming cycle.

He could hear Fakra's booming laughter and could almost identify Moore's giggles in the chaos.

He wished he had a vid to put on or _something_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mass Effect is a melting pot of diversity. It's canon that most humans are 'ambiguously brown' or thereabouts.
> 
> In this case, Julie has Romani ancestry.
> 
> Sorry for the long wait. Still busy with work so I posted two in one here.  
As always, comments and/or kudos are highly appreciated! Hope you grinned through this as much as I did writing it.


	12. Shrike

Vex was suited and standing ready at the airlock with the rest of the team.

It had become routine for Tenn to handle getting as close to an intact station dock as possible and allow one of them to initiate manual docking procedures, since they weren't certain the automated protocols were safe.

Hal would try to connect to the station, then confirm Tenn's choice and they could start.

Sylcus would proceed alone and cycle the interior airlock closed then depressurize and open the exterior door so she could float with only a thin tether connecting her to the ship (and her biotics) to the dock and connect the docking tube to the Agilis' locking mechanism.

As soon as it was safe, she would manually cycle the airlock of the station open by the emergency trigger, check that the interior door was ready for them, return to the Agilis, repressurize, allow the rest of the team in and depressurize again so they could all float over, enter the station and repressurize in it if it had atmo.

It was tedious and boring and most everyone chatted to pass the time, but Sylcus insisted on doing it the right way instead of rushing ahead with all of them, so they waited.

He always had an eye on Sylcus' back. It was just that now he was more focused than usual as he stared as his CO through the video-feed.

Lu and Ianni (who would remain on the ship and were only here to see them off) were giggling at something on Hal's omni while Fakra yawned loudly even in her helmet. He wished Tony were here to stoically stand next to. He would have probably noticed and made fun of Vex and his predicament, but it'd have been wildly preferable to his absence.

He felt Moore step next to him and look up through the clear visor over her face. He could see the black undersuit's hood sticking to her forehead just below her hairline. They brought her and Hal along since it was relatively safe and they needed all the help they could get hauling fuel and gas tanks. Ianni was banned from helping after she'd almost lost a tank to the void when she'd gotten spooked by a floating dead body last time.

Moore drew in a breath and opened her mouth but didn't say anything.  
He acknowledged her with a nod but kept his mouth shut. How did he even talk to her before?

She fiddled with the buckle of the M-3 Predator pistol strapped to her thigh. He'd only ever seen her wearing it while on supply runs. The safety was on so he was reasonably certain she wouldn't shoot herself, or them, by accident.

"Um. Did I…" she hedged and stopped when he glanced down at her.

"Are we… are we ok?" she murmured hesitantly after a deep breath.

_Shit, was she onto him? Play it cool._

"Why wouldn't we be? Got something to make up for?" his voice dipped into the lower registers he usually reserved for flirting at the bar and he inwardly cursed himself.

She blinked twice and shifted from one foot to the other.  
"Uh, well, I was hoping you could tell me that."

"D-don't sweat it, Moore. I'm just…" confused? Lost? Lonely? Unable to scratch some intangible, unknowable itch at the back of his mind? "…tired." he finished with a deep sigh.

"Having trouble sleeping?" she murmured.

_Fuck! How could she know?! Sylcus wouldn't betray him like this would she? Wait, she didn't know either… or did she?_

"Y-yeah?" his collar suddenly felt too tight, he reached up to tug at it.

Moore followed the motion with her eyes, gaze settling on his own through the helmet. He tried not to blink too much.

"I miss him too." her eyes had that odd shine about them again but she blinked it away.

He didn't ask who. Tony's crushing absence was a statement of it's own. He felt ashamed for his shallow wants and urges all over again.

"Feels wrong to be laughing without him, you know?"

"Yeah…"

"Sometimes I wish I'd have stayed… maybe he would ha-"

"There was nothing you could have done if you stayed, except die with him. And he wouldn't have forgiven you for it." Vex spoke with utter conviction. He remembered Tony's last words with new meaning now.

She still looked unconvinced, morosely staring down at her boots, but this wasn't a battle to be won in one short conversation.

Vex hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder and waited for her to meet his eyes again.  
"He said you'd be stubborn about this you know. I'm sorry for your loss, I know you were important to each other." he gave the shoulder-pad of her suit a light squeeze and released it.

"He always was a worrywart." her smile was small and sad.

Vex leaned a shoulder on the bulkhead and checked on Sylcus. She was almost done securing the tube.

Moore shuffled and seemed to relax.

"If you don't mind me asking… how long have you known him?"

With the others engaged in some sort of omni-tool game, and Fakra looking close to dozing, the conversation almost felt private.

"About… four years? Almost five. We met after Luca got transferred on my team. What you said last time… did he tell you about his brother?" of course she'd noticed. This woman was sharper than he'd ever given her credit for.

"A bit."

"Must have trusted you a lot. Tony was always friendly and kind… but he rarely let people close."

"And were you two… _close_?"

She gave him a raised brow and he checked on Sylcus again to avoid it.

"I… guess." she shrugged with one shoulder. "I still feel like I barely got to know him sometimes. I wish… I wish we'd had more time..."

"Me too. He was a good man." he nodded. Sylcus was getting ready to close the outer door.

"What about you? This ship had more crew… before... I mean - _if_ \- you want to talk about it, can't be easy losing your-"

"We should get ready. The Captain is going to order us out soon." he didn't mean to be so abrupt (or loud, the rest closed their omni-tools and got in formation), but they really did have to get going and the timing was perfect because remembering his dead crew along with their most recent loss sounded like a bad way to start a supply-run.

"Right." she straightened.

A minute later, the Captain cycled the inner airlock open and motioned them through.

"Everything looks good but there's no lights or gravity on the station from what I could see. Lets hope we can find something of use."

It wasn't unexpected to find an inert station (the other two had been running on fumes too) and it might actually make their work easier. It was weird that their initial reading indicated power fluctuations. The station must have been on its last legs if it gave out during their deceleration.

The airlock was a tight fit for five people, especially when one of those people were krogan. He was squished to the side against Moore by Fakra's large hump and he had to steady himself with both arms before their combined bulk crushed the human. He muttered a quick "Sorry." and didn't glance down to where she was looking up at him from chest-level.

Vex slinked out after Sylcus as soon as she was free, went down the short docking tube and into the station's much more spacious airlock to wait for the whole team.

Once they were all together, Hal checked the door again and opened it to the inert station.

The interior was darker than night, they'd have to make do with the lights mounted on their armors and the faint blue emergency illumination lining the ceiling.  
His magboots clicked up his suit, the sound reaching his helmet as a muffled vibration. He saw and faintly felt the others doing the same.

Walks in null gravity were always a little weird, even with all the training. His hindbrain was used to having an up and down and using the boots felt like floating with rocks tied to his feet.   
He saw Hal deactivate his and use the rails to gently push himself forward with the grace only someone who had lived all their lives in space could manage.

Moore clunked around like she's stepped in shit and his little snicker of amusement made it over the general comms (since he'd forgotten to turn it off). She either ignored him or was too busy putting one foot in front of the other.

Sylcus motioned for them to split up and scavenge. They all had different tasks.   
The Captain and himself would secure the gas tanks (usually just Hydrogen and Oxygen, the ship wouldn't need Nitrogen any time soon).  
Fakra and Hal handled the fuel and Moore would scout the ship for any useful leftovers.   
He had to doublecheck every part or tool she brought, in case it was broken like the last two times. He knew the woman was smart but by the Spirits, she could NOT tell a wrench apart from a broken hammer (they didn't even need that many hammers, why did she keep bringing them over…).

Refueling and replenishing their gas supply involved a little space-walking (which Fakra and respectively Sylcus handled). Usually he and Hal would monitor progress and keep an eye on the process. If anything looked off they would have to pull the other two out.

It was during this time that a strange, garbled sound came over the general comm.

<<Anguisan, if you're playing with the comms again-.>>

<<Wasn't me ma'am.>>

<<… Fine. Everyone - satus report.>>

<<Base to away team, everything green." Tenn, and by extenstion the ship, were always first during checkups.

<<Clear.>> Fakra rumbled.

<<Hal and I are good here too.>> Vex added after glancing at Hal's thumbs up.

There was a beat during which Moore should have sounded in.

<<Doc, reply if you can hear us.>> Sylcus had turned around to face the viewport, keeping the Hydrogen tank connected to the ship's induction port in a faint biotic corona.

<<Is her comm off... or busted?>> Lu asked.

<<Worked fine during pre-mission checks... I'll go look for her. Hal, keep an eye on things here.>> he volunteered.

<<Belay that, wait for us to come in, we'll search together.>> Sylcus argued.

<<Can't. Fuel's pumping.>> Fakra said.

<<Shouldn't leave tank unsupervised, stray debris may cause puncture.>> Tenn warned.

<<She's probably just found some planetary dataset or whatever and turned off her comms. I'll give her a stern talkin'-to for you, ma'am.>> Vex offered magnanimously.

<<Can it. Find her and check in.>>

Vex saluted, nodded at Hal (who gave him another thumbs up) and backed out of the room by deactivating his magboots and pushing against the console.

He floated along the rungs for a while, poking his head into every room he thought Moore might have been wasting time in. She had a habit of ignoring just about everything short of a Reaper invasion once she concentrated on something.

He checked the whole level and headed down to enginering. For half a second he was afraid she might have turned something on and fried herself to a crisp.

The bowels of the station were a little wider than the rest so he turned on his boots. He was getting more and more worried the further in he got.

The relief was palpable when he spotted the back of her suit down an access hall. He didn't immediately notice the stilted, deliberate way she turned around to face him until it was too late.

<<The hell are you even->>

There was a crackle over the comms, someone had hacked them, and a stranger's voice ordered <<Hands up.>>

Vex complied when the command was immediately followed by the muzzle of an assault rifle poking his side.

Now that Moore was fully turned around, he could see her terrified expression and shaking hands. Her side-arm was pointed at her head by another stranger. He wore a battered Blue Suns armor.

Moore mouthed something at him. The mercs had probably blocked her comms and copied their frequencies.

The man behind Vex ordered him to turn around and he did so slowly. He didn't like not having a visual on Moore and her attacker. He heard the clicks of his weapons being taken away from his back reverberating through his suit.

Vex saw the man fiddle with his omni-tool, harsh orange light casting an odd glow over his helmet and the comm clicked again. Switched to another channel.

<<This the one with the authorization codes?>> the other merc asked in a gravely tone. He sounded batarian. Vex's opponent must have been a human then, no garble in his throat.

There was another click and Moore's voice trembled over. <<Y-yes.>>

Authorization codes?   
It took a second for realization to settle in. Moore must have tricked them into thinking the ship had security. Made them draw attention to themselves to lure someone away and get help. Smart girl.

<<Guess we don't need you no more, girlie.>> the batarian chuckled as the human Blue Suns floated behind Vex again and nudged him forward. He felt the vibration of the other man's boots sticking to the floor once he activated them.

<<Hnnnn, she's still good for a meatshie-.>>

<<You really picked the wrong people to mess with.>> Vex interrupted as they headed back down the access hall.

<<Quiet, birdie, or I blow your beak off.>> the human warned. The two of them were almost out.

Vex stalled conversationally and took the corner, his merc following right after. <<Now that's no way to talk about your mother's favorite part of me. Or wait, was it actually ->>

<<I said be quie->>

The guy didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. Vex had spun around lighting-fast with a little biotic help, pushing the rifle away from him with an elbow while slamming the merc's head into the bulkhead. The man only gave a short, surprised gasp that didn't even get the chance to turn into a grunt of pain before he passed out.

That was the thing about turian biotics, not many aliens were aware they even existed. And if they did, they never expected to face one.

Vex took the rifle and aimed it at Moore, biotic shield coming to life around him with a grunt. Her merc was behind her, using her as a shield. He didn't have a clear shot.

<<Drop it or she's dead.>> the batarian had Moore's pistol flush to her lower back. He sounded scared, now that he realized he wasn't facing an average soldier.

Moore had lowered her arms, hands curled in tight fists. She looked more angry than panicked now. Vex shook his head minutely, he didn't want her doing anything rash, this guy was already panicking.

She nodded and he saw her shoulders relax a fraction.

<<I said. **Drop**. **It**.>> the batarian punctuated each word by digging the muzzle of his gun right into the unarmored mesh over Moore's waist. Sounded uncomfortable judging by the little sounds of pain coming over the comms.

Vex let the rifle float somewhere behind him with the flick of a wrist.

<<You realize I'll turn you into paste if you hurt her, right?>>  
He was exaggerating his powers a little, he'd never managed to Warp more than a soggy tissue in his life, but the merc didn't need to know that.

There was an audible gulp as the batarian took tentative steps around him, always making sure to keep Moore as close as possible. Vex saw she'd turned off her magboots and let herself be pulled along.   
The idiot was turning his back to the only exit.

<<You're gonna let me walk out of here and you know it.>> he grumbled while backing away.  
<<Wouldn't want me accidentally killing your little girlfriend here, right?>> the batarian sneered behind his helmet.

Vex smiled behind his own, feeling the deck reverberate with heavy steps. It shouldn't technically feel any different, Krogans weighed just as little in null G as he did, but somehow, Fakra's bounding - almost elegant, leaps between magnetic locks and releases felt like an earthquake. She kept her feet close to the deck, the magboots only worked within a radius of a few centimeters. It almost looked like she was skating.

The merc felt it too late and turned just in time to catch a Krogan-shaped projectile in the side.  
He heard both him and Moore grunt with the impact, the light of the pistol firing illuminated the space once before getting ripped away by an angry swipe from Fakra.

He Pushed forward aiming for Moore. He wasn't sure but he thought he'd seen something dark erupting out of her suit.

Fakra was now wrestling with the merc, and winning by the looks of it.

Moore looked pale behind her visor, he was just about to grab her when she unexpectedly pushed off the floor, grabbed her stolen pistol, aimed it at Vex and fired.  
  
He didn't have the chance to feel betrayal or even close his eyes. Moore was clutching her side, dark fluid leaking out between her fingers and sticking to her side in a thick, viscous and expanding globe as she slowly spun backwards from the pistol's kickback.

He finally noticed she was looking behind him, eyes dark with anger.   
Vex glanced back and saw the other merc, still holding the rifle Vex had taken and then discarded. There was a hole leaking the same dark fluid in his visor, blood gathering behind it where it couldn't escape though the cracked hole and spreading out like ball, freezing solid at the exterior and cracking open as more was vacuumed out.  
A perfect headshot.

His surprise was shortlived when he righed himself and saw Moore slowly spinning in the middle of the room, body slack and small globules of blood separating from her side to wobble and freeze in the empty space like uncertain black holes.

There was a resounding crack over the comms and loud static. Fakra had just crushed the batarian merc's head under her heel.

He was beyond caring or being impressed. Using his biotics to float himself to Moore, he gently grabbed her then Pushed them both past Sylcus, who had just arrived in the doorway.

Hal was already by the airlock, getting ready to cycle them through. His comms were still hacked but words weren't needed.

Vex's panicked panting was the only thing he could hear as he waited for the airlock to cycle open and closed, muttering 'faster, faster' to himself as he dashed down the connecting tube, trailing frozen blood in his wake, then waited again for the ship's airlock.  
Decon finished with a human waste biohazard warning. Lu, registered as the Chief Medical Examiner on the ship's VI now, must have overridden in because it opened while Vex was still feeling the artificial gravity taking hold.

Moore's blood was now splattering the deck as he ran past a coughing Tenn, heading for the medbay and trying not to jostle her too much.

Ianni and Lu were already waiting for them, gurney, table of ustensils and precision mechanical arms ready and waiting.

Ianni biotically took her off his outstretched arms to lay her on the gurney and started cutting the mesh on her abdomen off.

He caught a glimpse of dark green medigel mixing with blood still slowly seeping out in sluggish bursts before Lu waved her hands in front of his face.

He hadn't even heard her ordering him out this whole time. She didn't touch him as she pointed to the door and yelled "_Now_, Vex!".

He backed out and let the doors close with a soft sound.   
His vision did something funny when he looked down at his hands and saw his gloves completely soaked in her blood.

\-----------

  
It took a while before Hal and Fakra, led by Sylcus, checked the whole station for other mercs while Vex stood guard at the now secured airlock.

The waiting was excruciating, but the Captain had commanded him to guard the ship, so he guarded the ship. He almost wished there were more mercs left and that they were stupid enough to try and breach the Agilis - just to have someone to kill.

He still had Moore's blood on him, was standing next to a big blotch of it near the airlock.

Vex was no stranger to the blood of any species. During his years as a Cabal he'd killed enough people, humans or otherwise, to be perfectly comfortable doing his job covered in various vital fluids.

Moore's blood somehow didn't look real. It looked like a careless drunken man had spilled burgundy paint all over the floor.   
A congealed drop of it was stubbornly sticking to the wall next to his knee, not heavy enough to drag itself down in a thin rivulet like the rest. It just hung on there like a little tear-shaped gem.

The blood on his dark blue armor was already flaking. He tried not to think about it too hard lest he abandon his post to shuck everything off and stand under the showers for however long the cheat codes worked. He'd never tested their limits, just used them for an extra thirty seconds or so of hot water every now and then.

He remembered how, not so long ago, he'd wished Lu had never put herself in danger to save the human and her paper-weight, hadn't been shy about showing it those first few days when Lu's survival hadn't been a sure thing.

The shame of it came back doubled. He'd probably have died without Moore, once on the moon and again just now.

<<Station's clear, we're heading back.>> Sylcus called over the general comms. He'd restored his connection after Sylcus had found him standing in front of the medbay and startled him out of his strange state with a gentle touch to the shoulder.

The team returned carrying his stolen guns, which he'd left behind in his haste to escape, the mercs' weapons and More's pistol as well as the duffle bag of whatever she'd scavenged before getting jumped.

He chuckled weakly when Hal brandished three hammers of varying sizes. She must have wanted to play him.

Vex allowed the krogan to pass him with a nod. He owed her one again. Then Hal, who patted his chestplate.

He faced Sylcus as they both finally took off their helmets. She had disconnected the airlock with help from the other two in a quarter of the time it would have normally taken her.

"Get us out of here, Tenn."

"Aye, ma'am."

She walked him past the mess (where they both ignored the opaque windows of the med-bay) and down to the armory next to the cargo-bay.

  
"Leave your armor here, I'll take care of it." she offered, uncharacteristically gentle.

"Thank you ma'am, but I can handle it." he straightened.

"Don't be stubborn, Anguisan, you don't have to do this alone." she started methodically unclasping the seals of her gauntlets and laying them side-by-side on the table.

"I need… I'd rather have something to do... Ma'am."

She paused in dragging her chestplate off to give him a measuring look and noded.

"You can help me clean the guns then."

He could do that. Vex finally started taking off his armor as Sylcus placed her own in the automated sanitizer for it's first round of cleaning. The whole Cabal had been meticulous about maintaining their armor, each had had their own particular ways (fat load of good it had done anyway, they'd all died just the same) but Sylcus's method would do just fine.

It was good, following the familiar motions of disassembling and cleaning his guns. His under-armor was flexible and comfortable with use, although it could use a wash too.   
The soft buzz of the sanitizer drying Sylcus' armor blanketed the room in haze of calming tones.   
As soon as her armor was done, Sylcus removed it and placed his own in, settling down across from him to work out all the gunk between the cracks that the sanitizer had missed.

He was done cleaning Fakra's shotgun and grabbed for the next piece, which happened to be Moore's pistol.

There was a tiny drop of blood right next to the trigger.

"Hey." Sylcus drew his attention when she noticed he'd frozen, staring down at the pistol in his lap.

Vex cleared his throat to banish the creeping spike of annoyance born of fear. He didn't know why he was so affected. His squadmates had suffered plenty of injuries over the years, they'd recently died. Tony had gotten sick and wasted away then killed himself.

He was still mourning them, but he'd never frozen like this before except for when his mother had passed and he'd thought Lu crushed to death.

He'd seen so much death during the Reaper invasion, he'd thought himself desensitized to it all.   
The number of casualties were astronomical from what Sylcus had told him after her second talk with Victus. Less than a third of the turian population alone was expected to have survived. The humans had it even worse, their civilian population had almost been eradicated and their military force was down to scraps.   
The Asari and Salarians were slightly better off, both had about half their population left.   
There were fractured messages from the Quarians and some surviving Batarians in refugee camps and spread around pirate crews.  
The Drell were already a dying species and the Hanar had retreated under their seas.  
The Krogan weren't doing great either, but apparently were already busy breeding while the Geth were all deactivated.  
He'd caught something about Rachni running around but he hadn't cared much by that point.

Why did Moore count different?  
Was is all just too much?  
Had all the deaths he'd endured finally piled up enough that he was incapable of taking any more?

He hadn't been able to save _one_ person.   
He hadn't been able to help the one being who had consistently tried to save _him_.   
Maybe that was it.

He should have done something, Pulled Moore out somehow, but it all happened so fast, and he'd hesitated out of fear of hurting Fakra.

Or maybe it was the fact that he'd made it out alive again.  
Or that he'd broken his promise.

"Did... did they say anything?" his voice came out ragged, he suppresed the pitiful keen building up in his chest and crawling to his throat.

Sylcus hung her head. "Alunia said they've done everything they could, but she's… uncertain. Julie's lost a lot of blood and the synthetizer onboard is only equipped for dextro vital fluids."

Vex frowned. "How long ago was this?" he asked suspiciously.

"… when we boarded."

Vex couldn't bring himself to ask why she hadn't announced it to the team. He didn't want to face the answer.

"It never ends does it…"

"What do you mean?" the captain abandoned her armor to lean over the table. He couldn't meet her eyes.

"The killing. We survived the worst threat in the galaxy and now we're getting picked off. By disease. By idiots with guns… why didn't they just ask for help?"

"Would you really have helped a couple of Blue Suns?"

"I don't... Maybe…? I guess we'll never know..."

"We found their ship, it was too wrecked to fly again, but Hal tells me they'd stopped at the station where we found that body only a couple of days ahead of us."

Sylcus got up and extracted his armor from the sanitizer, placing it piece by piece in front of him on the table.

"I don't know what's waiting for us at the end of this ride, but we can't give up now." she didn't touch him, she was good about knowing when people needed to be left alone.

She then took the pistol out of his slack hands and got back to work.

He let himself get lost in the motions again. Cleaned his armor and then his undersuit until there were no more traces of violence on them. Then he used the cheatcodes to take hot shower.

By the time everything was done, he felt spent, wrung out like an overused rag close to ripping with its edges fraying.  
He forced himself to eat on Sylcus' orders and tried to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you think I'm a sadist to my own characters, you're absolutely right.
> 
> As always, thank you for reading!  
Leave a comment if you like and see y'all next week!


	13. Half the world away

The room must have been spinning.

She couldn't understand why she was so dizzy otherwise.

There was too much light too, she could see it through her eyelids - an angry red haze that was still too much for her aching head.

And it stank of antiseptic and medigel.

The overwhelming smell and the spinning made her nauseous, her stomach tied up in knots and rumbling with both hunger and disgust. There was a nasty, acrid taste at the back of her throat and a dull pain in her right side.

Moving was a concept as far away from her as she was physically from Earth.  
There was a full-body numbness, like she was in one of those horrible sleep paralysis episodes she got sometimes, only worse.

She was becoming increasingly aware of an incessant beeping somewhere to her left, the increasing tempo inducing a sort of animal panic she hadn't felt since she'd seen her first husk.

There were things in her body, she could feel them tug at her as she struggled feebly.  
Tubes rose above her.

_Not again, please not again._

The urge to get up and run, run, run kept beating in her head and she squinted one eye open to try and gauge her surroundings.

It was a mistake, the brightness hurt. She turned away tried to raise a hand to shield her eyes but that was a mistake too.  
Her abdomen gave a sudden jolt of pain that almost brought her back to consciousness.  
She could feel her heart beat wildly, her pulse a constant reminder of the pain radiating out from her middle to the rest of her body.

The dizziness came back with a vengeance just when a door whooshed open and someone yelled something, the sound was muffled by the blood rushing in her ears and then everything went black.

\------------

  
Her second time waking was similar to the first, not that she really remembered much of it beyond the pain and fear anyway, but this time there was someone by her bedside who fiddled with something to her left and then the darkness came earlier, she didn't even get to feel the pain all that much. She barely registered the cool hand closing over one of her fists, except that it was slightly damp.

  
The third time was gentler. The lights had been dimmed. There was still pain and fear but the familiar voice speaking to her in a soothing, rumbly baritone helped a great deal. The darkness came after a giant warm and rough (scaly?) hand enveloped her own.

  
The fourth time she thought she saw kind, worried eyes shining in a dark window but she couldn't be entirely sure, the dizziness was worse than usual and she passed out after a few tired blinks.

  
The fifth time she managed to break the surface of consciousness fully and registered Liveria pacing at the foot of her bed. The Caballim noticed her and practically teleported next to her when she opened her eyes again. Mandibles waving about as she mumbled something. Warmth touched her shoulder and she closed her eyes to savor it.

Julie suddenly remembered something. The flash of a gun shining in pale emergency lights behind deep blue armor. Muzzle aimed at his head.

She managed to ask "Where's The Asshole?" (or tried to) then promptly passed out again.

  
The sixth time she woke, Ianni was there, smiling at her like she'd just won the lottery and patting her shoulder so gently she mostly saw it out of the corner of her eye rather than feel it.

The asari was saying something, her tone low, almost down to a whisper, but too fast for her sluggish brain to keep up with. Julie managed to rise a hand from the elbow up, patting the air in front of Ianni's face to get her to slow down.  
The maiden just dodged an accidental would-be smack and held her limp hand in hers, mouth still going a mile a minute.

Julie fell back into a restless sort of dream halfway through a story about Tenn winning at poker by flirting, or something like it, she wasn't too certain she heard everything right, didn't sound like something the old salarian would do.

  
She continued falling in and out of consciousness, slowly becoming increasingly aware of the ache in her abdomen, the ambient sounds and smells becoming less jarring.

Whenever she woke up, there was always someone by the bed.  
She even caught glimpses of The Asshole (as she'd come to think of him privately) and felt herself grow calmer with the knowlegle that he'd survived after all.

She didn't know how long it had been, but at one point she woke up for real.  
She was feeling very weak and hungry, her throat hurt like she'd been coughing too much, her vision still swam a little and her whole body felt like it had been trampled under rampaging krogan but for the first time in recent memory, her awareness was almost all there.

She felt a weight dragging her body sideways in the hospital cot, probably what woke her in the first place, and she turned her head to try and identify the disturbance.

She grunted in surprise, her throat was raw and sore as she wheezed out. The Asshole himself was dozing next to her, one spiky elbow propped on the mattress to support his drooping head.  
She'd never seen a sleeping turian before. He still looked a little... intense (like his whole species)… but with his mandibles hanging more slackly against his jaw, his breath puffing gently through his nose and moving the segmented bits in a sedate pace he almost looked… cute?

His nose twitched at her aborted attempt at a laugh (it hurt too much to tense up her abdomen) and then his eyelids lifted to regard her with those briliantly green beady eyes of his.

They stared at each other for a long second.  
His nose twitched again and she puffed a laugh through her own.

"Well, someone's high off her ass." he drawled, rising a rigid brow at her.  
For someone with plates for a face, he was incredibly expressive.

She almost laughed again but stopped herself with another undignified grunt.  
When she tried to speak, something airy and rough came out in stead.

He wordlessly handed her a cup of water with a straw in it and she sipped slowly then tried to clear her throat without tensing up her abdominal muscles. It was unsuccessful.

"How you feeling?" he asked after setting the half-empty cup on the small table next to her bed.

"Like shit." she was surprised to hear her own voice sound so broken and scratchy.

He nodded thoughtfully. "Sure look like it too."

He'd said it in such a deadpan monotone she almost laughed again. "Goddamn, stop…. making me.... laugh. Hurts."

He leaned back in his chair and grinned in his turian way. She'd gotten used to it enough that it wasn't off-putting to see those sharp teeth anymore.

"How long…?"

"Just over a week. You can thank Ianni, Lu and the inventors of medigel."

"Damn."

"Yeah."

"Fakra?"

"Probably sleeping like a giant, scaled baby by now. Her shift was just before mine."

"Shift?"

"… we've been taking turns keeping an eye on you."

"Why?"

"Uh… I wasn't there when it happened but you apparently freaked out the first time you woke up alone pretty badly. Later too but… less when someone was around to talk you down."

"Oh."

He scratched at his chin with a sharp talon. No glove.  
"Gotta say. Never thought you'd be the clingy type." he chuckled nervously while looking away.

"Y-yeah… I… must have been confused. Last time I…" she trailed off uncertainly, the drugs dulling the pain must have made her chattier than usual, she'd almost slipped.

"Last time you what?"

"N-nevermind... Everyone else?" she flopped her hand around in a circular motion to get her point across.

He just gave her a flat stare but thankfuly let the subject drop with a shrug. "Same as usual. We did miss you beating Tenn at poker though."

"Clean you… all out?" Julie asked with a smile. Riling the salarian up was the most fun she'd had in a while.

He groaned and rubbed at his forehead. "Don't remind me, whenever he and Lu play it always turns into this weird competitive thing - they're mean to each other. At least with you it was funny."

"Aw... missed me?" she teased and weakly rubbed the sand out of her eyes. Gross.

"Yeah."

She looked back at him, eyes crossing as she strained to blink a tear out. Did she hear him right, or was she hallucinating because of the drugs?

Julie didn't get the chance to ask anything as Vex cleared his throat and rose from his seat, long strides taking him to the other side of the room in a second.

"I'll get Lu, she'll want to see you now that you're lucid." he said while palming the interface to open the door.

"Hey, uh… Vex?"  
She'd rarely used his name before. It felt weird saying it aloud.  
He stopped and looked at her expectantly.

"Thanks for… getting me out of there…" she couldn't remember everything, but she had fragments of floating through the ship, she'd felt the gravity and woken up long enough to feel strong arms carrying her as gently as they could.  
She got lost in the memories and closed her eyes to help focus herself.

"… I should be the one saying that." his tone was so sombre that it snapped her out of her reverie.  
"It's twice I owe you now."

Julie was struck speechless. Her mouth opened and closed like a drowning fish.

"Call it… even?" she attempted a shrug but only managed to jostle the tubes connected to her.

If there was an equivalent to pursed lips in turians, it must have been the face he was making now. Mandibles drawn tight to his face, a tendon twitching down his neck and the deepest frown she's seen on him yet.

He nodded and stepped out. The airlock closed softly behind him.

\-------------

  
Julie's recovery went by slowly.  
She'd been lucky the shot only really grazed her on the side, no major organs were hit, but the muscle there had bled more than normal without gravity or an atmosphere helping out. The medi-gel dispensers in her suit had fired off but hadn't completely sealed the hole with part of the ablative ceramic of her light armor blown off.

Once she was well enough to speak without gasping for breath, she told them the whole sordid tale of how the pirates snuck up behind her when she was scavenging a tool-kit (not mentioning it was to prank The Asshole) and disabled her comms before threatening her with their gun and taking her pistol.

She'd managed to trick them into believing the Agilis had a two-key authorization setup to their suits. It was a believable lie, the ship - like many others in the Hierarchy, actually used to have it before Hal had disabled the security protocols to cut boarding time back when they'd been stuck on the moon and had to make periodic trips to the corvette.

Getting help had then become a matter of waiting. She couldn't contact the whole team, she couldn't fight one unarmed guy, let alone two, so she helped the mercs lay a trap.

If those jerks hadn't bought her lie, they could have just strolled into the ship and killed everyone.

They had been ultimately lucky that Fakra had finished her job faster and headed in early.

Needless to say, the security protocol was back in place and no one would go off alone, no matter how much more efficient it would have been.  
Every trip off the ship would take twice as long, but it was preferable to sabotage or infiltration.

The team later went on another resupply mission while she was still stuck in the medbay, but fortunately there weren't any more pirates this time and everything went off without a hitch.

  
They were now on the last leg of their journey and Lu was hopeful that Julie would regain full mobility by the time they reached Sur'Kesh.

She was also burning through their levo rations faster than before, needing the extra calories to recover but her stomach couldn't always handle the extra food all at once, so her meals were small and spread out throughout the day.  
She'd already lost a good few kilograms while she was unconscious and they'd had to feed her paste through a tube. She was grateful she'd never woken up during the process.

She felt guilty every time someone came in to keep her company (and probably make sure she ate everything, her apetite was less than lacking) although she no longer required constant supervision, the team still made an effort to keep up their rotations.

She would have breakfast with Ianni and Lu, who sometimes slept in the same room as her.  
Then Ianni would help her with a shower, blushing dark blue the whole time but keeping a respectful distance and tone with her at all times.

Fakra would come over for lunch and stay for a few card-games with Tenn, who would only linger a short while after Fakra would leave, then excuse himself too.

Lu would later come in with a snack and flirt for a few minutes before leaving to see to her duties again.

Liveria preferred her visits to be a little longer, usually during dinner when they would chat afterwards about the turian's wild youth and Julie's boring teenage years while she nibbled on her rations.

Sometimes Fakra would join them.

One evening, the mood turned bitter-sweet when Fakra told them a little about her daughter after Julie had shown the two alien women a few childhood photos she still had on her omni of her and her family.  
The sting of Horizon must have shown in her voice, it seemed to have prompted the other two to share their own losses.

Khar had been the only child of hers who had ever lived.  
From the way Fakra told it, the young krogan had been a particularly stubborn female, with a passion for explosives and too smart for her own good.

It was because of her child that Fakra had fled the female camps and struck out alone, taking mercenary jobs wherever she could find them. She did not want her daughter to grow up on a wasteland, and Khar had despised the idea of having stillborn children of her own.

Their lives had been hard, forced to avoid most of their kind and stay away from krogan controlled space.

They'd never made it back on Tuchanka for the rumored cure.

Julie hadn't known how to react. Saying sorry felt trite, any condolences she could think of paled in front of Fakra's deep, silent grief.

It was then that Liveria cleared her throat and announced she had been married once, and subsequently separated after the loss of her own unborn son. An unseen complication and an undetected genetic deficiency due to her biotic nodes and exposure to eezo.

Julie felt inadequate and decided to be silent as the two women shared some of their grief over the mattress of her bed.

The conversation (really, mostly grieving silence) was interrupted when Hal came in waving a datapad with the most recent chapter of his story.  
The kid didn't sense the mood immediately, all three women pretending to be fine as he chattered on.

Julie just wiped her brimming tears and engaged the young man while the other two collected themselves.

  
\--------------

One presence who was notably absent was The Asshole.  
She had expected him to swing by at least once, their last conversation had ended somewhat awkwardly and Julie would have liked to clear the air.

She'd see him hovering by the entrance to the mess hall sometimes but whenever she thought he'd come in to say hi he'd just veer left and continue down to the main battery with a wave.

If she weren't stuck to the bed she would have followed him just to ask what the hell he was so afraid of. Didn't he say he owed her? Was that why he was acting so weird?  
Was the big bad turian ashamed of owing a human his life?

It's not like she lorded that over him, she didn't even agree with his view of things in the first place.

He'd never struck her as a racist. At first he'd been a little scary, but even then she could tell it was a fucked up reaction to almost losing Alunia. She knew firsthand what that kind of shock and grief could do to a person.  
He'd befriended Tony and the marine would never have been friends with someone who would seriously want to hurt either of them, however relaxed with people he'd been.

Remembering Tony just made her miserable all over again. She wished he were here. She wanted to hear him laugh, or crack a stupid joke and poke her in the ribs just one more time.

She wanted to hug him and tell him he was the closest thing to family she'd had left.

The only other living relatives she was close to were her aunts and she hadn't heard anything from them during the war. They'd talked over holo a few days before the Reapers hit Vancouver but nothing got through after that.  
Julie was never one for false hope.

Being glued to the bed also didn't do her any favors. For one, her back and ass were starting to hurt, she couldn't move much because of the mending wound in her side and her legs would fall asleep pretty fast if she attempted to sit up and read on her omni.

With her world reduced to the medbay, she was becoming increasingly bored and stifled.

She would have done statistics just to have her brain do something. Counting the bolts had lost it's charm long ago and singing wasn't really on the table since it required she sit up straight.

She was in the middle of playing string games with her hands (and completely messing it up) when The Asshole strolled in, looking like he'd sucked on something sour and wringing his hands worse than Hal did when he was waiting for reactions to his writing.

He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it with a clack as his eyes zeroed in on her hands.

"… you are into some _weird_ shit…" he muttered with a rigid frown.

It took Julie a second to catch his drift. Her wrists were practically tied together by the mess of red string she was trying to maneuver into the 'bridge' shape.

She almost choked on her spit with the first denial and The Asshole started laughing at her.

Spluttering and redfaced, she couldn't manage to detangle herself and ended up making an even bigger mess.

Still chuckling and humming in that deeply amused garble she could feel more than hear, The Asshole took the seat on her left side and gestured for her to stop struggling. He methodically took off the glove on his right hand, revealing razor-sharp talons and offered the still covered left hand, palm up.

Julie didn't even flinch at the dark knives for nails and placed her wrists in his profered hand.

She'd been surprised before to feel that turians ran hotter than humans. Whenever she sat next to Liveria, the woman always radiated heat like a furnace.  
His hand was warm even through the glove.

Vex neatly cut through the string with the longest middle digit without ever touching her skin, talon shining in the overhead lights.

Julie finally pulled the string off and rubbed her sore wrists.  
When she looked back up at him, he was staring at her hands with a weirdly constipated look, like he was queasy.

"What?"

He gulped and darted a glance up at her then continued to stare at her hands.  
She waved them about in her lap and he instinctively followed the movement to her amusement.

"Just how thin _is_ human skin? Spirits, it looks raw…" he murmured in an almost fearful tone, not even noticing her teasing.

"Really? It's just a little red from the friction. Didn't even break the surface, see?" she shoved her left wrist closer to his face and traced the fading marks with a finger.  
His bared hand twitched on the mattress between them, almost lifting.

"I can even see the veins underneath…" he continued, wide-eyed and sounding perplexed.  
"Why is it blue though? I thought human blood was red."

"Dunno, something about how the light hits?"

He gave a full-body shudder and made what she'd come to identify as a 'disgusted turian face'. It wasn't all that different from his normal face, except that the mandibles trembled a little, the hide on his neck pebbled around the scattered dots of harder plate and his segmented nose contracted fully.

"I can never understand how you people survived so long with paper for skin."

"Believe it or not, we can actually get paper-cuts. They're awful."

"Oh, I believe it. You'd get shredded by the grass on Palaven." he nodded emphatically.

They shared an awkward laugh that trailed off into a cough from her, and a contemplative, vibrating hum from him.

"Moore… how…. " his green eyes darted about the room, avoiding contact with her own before finally settling on the mattress between their hands.  
"How did you know _I_ would come after you and not Hal?"

Julie drew in a long breath and let it out slowly, trying to order her thoughts.

"I knew our routine and… I knew…. I knew you'd never let Hal get anywhere near something even remotely dangerous."

He blinked at her, green gaze finally meeting her own.

She reached further down and held on to his hand. It was weird, the three digits were too long, the talons looked like hooks ready to tear flesh and the skin was too rough to be familiar. But his palm was warm and it was solid and it had saved her life.

"You're a good man, Vex."

He stared at her for a long moment. Mandible fluttering around in what she'd come to recognize as anxiousness. A subtle, low trill vibrated up her arm and into her whole body.

He curled his fingers over her own and gave a stilted little nod.

They broke apart hastily when the airlock whooshed open and Alunia limped in.

"Julie, you are never gonna _believe_ th - oh. Hi… Vex…"

The trio stared at each other, awkwardness oddly reminiscent of the 'bathroom incident' except flipped somehow.

"Uh, you guys ok? You look a little… intense…" the asari hedged.

"I was just on my way out." Vex stated as he rose from his seat and nonchalantly put his glove back on.  
He then walked stiffly past Alunia with a small nod.

As soon as the airlock was closed, Alunia threw her a suspicious look and wobbled to the empty seat.

"He, uh, tell you about the salarians?"

Julie shook her head.

"Apparently they've got a bit of a welcome committee set up for us. Wanna know the best part?" Alunia wiggled in her seat, her smile wide and excited.

"Go ahead and tell me."

The asari squeaked and wiggled some more. "Fresh food!!"

"They're gonna share?" Julie's brow rose up in surprise and delight.

"Can't wait! Ugh, I am SO tired of rations."

"I haven't tried much salarian cuisine so far, this should be interesting."

"Oh, they have the best sushi analog, and there are these grubs they make in this spicy sauce? Amazing."

"G-grubs?"

"It sounds weirder that in looks and it tastes absolutely delicious!"

Julie was as hungry and bored with the rations as the rest of the crew but… grubs? She'd go for the fish, hopefully they had the cooked kind, she'd never been a big fan of sushi either.

"Sounds great." she tried not to sound disgusted. If Alunia liked eating bugs and raw fish, who was she to judge?

The asari sighed looking lost in a daydream.

"Anyway, you should get started on some exercises, Ianni should be here soon." the asari pointed a thumb behind her and Ianni walked in right on queue.

The rest of the day was spent relearning how to move her body in a way that didn't hurt too much.  
It felt good.  
It felt like hoping for something more than survival wasn't a just fantasy.

\------------

  
The days passed quickly. With her new workout routine, Julie finally had something to focus on - and when she focused on something, she gave it her all.

Physical exhaustion kept some of the bad dreams away too.

She'd been a healthy young woman in the beginning, working on stations or foreign planets usually required a certain amount of physical effort, and she enjoyed having some time to herself when her mind was only occupied with counting breaths.  
The war and being stranded on the moon with less than ideal supplies had interfered with her routine and she had lost some weight. Getting shot and being stuck in bed had cost her even more muscle mass. The blood loss had also made her sluggish and prone to vertigo.

She felt weak and slow. She would get tired very easily and her hands sometimes shook. She'd dropped enough mugs at first that she was always careful to pick up fragile stuff with both hands and never hold on to them for too long.

Still, she persevered. Improving a little day by day. The crew was always supportive, although they had learned fairly quickly that she preferred solitude if a supervisor or help weren't absolutely necessary.  
As much as she had come to care for Ianni, some privacy while she suffered through her workouts was nice.

On the upside, whatever had been going on with Vex seemed to have gone away on its own.  
He was… genuinely nice to her.

Maybe it had been the near-death experience, or maybe he'd finally understood that she wasn't holding a grudge. Or perhaps they had simply grown accustomed enough with each other that the little teasing and barbs between them were now fun rather than annoying.

  
They finally decided to have a sort of wake for Tony before they reached their destination.  
Now that they were in the home-run, and didn't have any resupply missions to take care of, the air around the ship was… more peaceful.

They each had a little something to say when they'd gathered in the mess for dinner, then a few minutes of silence.

It didn't feel like enough.

It was still unfair.

He should have been here with them, excited about finally reaching some form of civilization, about getting some real food. About touching down on a planet that didn't want to kill them.  
Julie cried herself to sleep that night. It was a blessing that she was well enough to sleep on her own, it wasn't a weakness she wanted to share.

  
The next cycle came with some measure of excitement. Mostly from Ianni, Alunia and Hal.  
Fakra was a little aprehensive about landing on the salarian homeworld but Liveria assured her nothing would happen to any of their crew.  
The krogan had just hummed her evil laugh and muttered something about worrying more for the salarians than her.

Sur'Kesh was a bright, colorful marble in the distance when they made contact with someone from flight control. He sounded young and even more excited than they did. It was good to hear a new voice.

She'd studied the geology of all council races homeworlds. She looked forward to seeing the planet firsthand for a change.

Another voice spoke to them as soon as they finished identifying themselves.

"Welcome to Sur'Kesh." a female voice greeted, sounding neutral in a way only politicians could manage.  
"This is Dalatrass Linron speaking. We received the communication from the Hierarchy about your arrival, although they weren't certain when you'd make it. You will dock at the Darshaan orbital station and submit yourselves and your ship to quarantine and a series of medical tests. We cannot afford to infect the Homeworld with whatever… bug… you brought with you." the latter part was said with an audible sneer.

The crew had mostly gathered towards to the cockpit, with Tenn and Hal in front on the seats, Liveria hanging on to Tenn's backrest and Alunia resting a forearm on the bulkhead.

Vex and Fakra were a little behind her on the corridor and Julie was hanging back, using Alunia's old (lengthened) crutches for support and sharing a perplexed look with Ianni.

Was it just her or was this Dalatrass… rude?  
Admittedly, they did need her help, and it was her planet...

Liveria cleared her throat before pressing on the broadcast haptic interface button.

"Understood Dalatrass. Although, your people should know our medical team already cleared us and we've been flying with no symptoms for a little over three months. I'll have our Chief medical Officer forward you our medical files."

"Mm-yes do that. We'll still have to run our own tests. We will speak more of your experiences after you dock and get settled in. The Primarch said something about your ship needing repairs?" the salarian sounded bored already.

"We'd like to integrate the QEC we salvaged from the Rigidium. My Chief Engineer says we need to overhaul the whole ship to accommodate the power demands. A little spit and shine wouldn't hurt either, the ship's been through a lot and got patched up with what resources we had at the time."

"That's doable, the Darshaan is equipped for small-ship maintenance and the medical facility is top of the line. We'll get you sorted out Captain."

"Thank you, Dalatrass. Full transparency, we've also got a geth corpse in the reinforced tool-shed. Off-limits."

"I... see... I'll tell the engineers." the Dalatrass sounded caught off guard. She'd probably never even seen a geth before.  
Julie hoped the salarians wouldn't mess with Francis. She didn't like thinking of him as a 'corpse' either, but had no better definition for his state.

"Oh, and before I forget, there wasn't much information on the parasite or the planet the Reaper died on in the info-packet the Primarch sent. Have your findings forwarded to our medical staff as well."

"Of course ma'am."

"We'll have a warm meal ready by the time you arrive, you must be hungry after so long only on rations. Unfortunately you'll have to wait a little more for the dextro-chirality dishes, we're still in the process of cloning from the specimens we have here."

"That's fine, Dalatrass. We appreciate the effort."

The comm clicked without further ado.  
This Dalatrass was something else.

Liveria had crossed her arms halfway through the interrogation and list of demands and was now clicking the talon of her thumb on her pauldron in a restless little tap-tap-tap that grated on the ears.

"Vex?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"How fast can you scrub the navigation data?"

"You know the options, Captain, do you want me to keep the navigation memory core intact, or dust it?"

"We got spares for those right?"

"The salarians do." he shrugged one-shouldered.

"I don't want this Dalatrass finding the planet, I don't trust her. Clean everything out, destroy the core. Hal, you flush the VI too. If the Primarch didn't just give her whatever information she wanted, we sure as hell won't." she turned her back to the cockpit while Hal nodded behind her and opened his own haptic interface.  
Vex was already slipping past Julie and her cumbersome crutches before Liveria finished speaking.

Fakra hummed low in her throat and grumbled: "Good insticts. That one's bad news."

"Tenn?" Liveria asked in a carefully neutral tone and half-turned towards his seat.

"Agreed." the salarian replied, making eye-contact through the reflective surface of the canopy in front of him.

The Captain's smile was small and secretive.

"I take it we all keep our mouths shut and play dumb, yeah?" Alunia rose a tattooed brow and smirked lopsided.

"Oh, that shouldn't be too hard for you!" Vex's yell was muffled from somewhere behind them. When Julie turned to look, she could see his legs sticking out from under the galaxy map platform, the panel neatly set aside. His toes twitched with what sounded like a laugh.

"What should the rest of us do?" Julie asked over Alunia's affronted gasp.

"You just focus on getting better, Julie." Liveria patted her on the shoulder as the turian passed by.

"But-"

"You and I have got to get back to physical therapy." Ianni declared with another pat on her opposite shoulder.

Julie groaned and shuffled back to the medbay. She didn't really need the crutch and resented its presence as she turned awkwardly and almost tripped on it, but sometimes when she got dizzy it was good to have something to lean on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the longer wait. Last week was hectic.
> 
> THEY HELD HANDS AAAA
> 
> Thanks, for reading!


	14. Play the game

Docking and submitting themselves to quarantine was another tedious process. 

After one scan of her frail frame, the salarians had prepared a transfusion for her. Julie had partially recovered already, but the extra care helped with her anemia and overall fatigue.

Each crew member had been issued their own little room in a sectioned off part of the huge medical bay on the Daarshan. A few square meters of privacy were a welcomed change after so long on the small ship.

The shower had been the best part for Julie. Salarians liked their water pleasantly warm and plentiful and the soap smelled like alien flowers (a vast improvement to the somewhat rough, unscented gel they all used for cleaning up on the Agilis). A bathtub would have been even better but she wasn't about to complain.

They'd even left her clothes, simple dark pants and a navy long-sleeved tunic, which were soft and smelled nice. She opted on wearing her old boots rather than the slim dark slipper-looking things.

The bed was a little weird and curbed but when she flopped on it and wiggled a little it proved comfortable enough to sleep in.

She stepped out just as Vex was backing out of the room opposite hers.

"Hi." she greeted and saw his shoulders tense minutely. Was that how turians flinched?

"Hey, Moore." he nodded back. 

They walked side by side down the corridor and she saw his mandible flutter about his jaw as he looked around. 

"Does it feel like someone's watching us?" he whispered, bending down towards her. She could feel the heat of his skin more the closer he got.

"Probably."

"Doesn't it bother you?"

Julie shrugged. 

"I don't really have anything to hide."

"That's bullshit. Just because you didn't do anything wrong doesn't give others the right to monitor you like a lab specimen." he muttered lowly, straightening.

"We kind of are though. You heard what the Dalatrass said, this is quarantine. Plus, if you had a salarian military ship and it's crew possibly infected with a flesh-eating disease coming to Palaven, wouldn't you want to keep an eye on them?"

He rumbled deep in his chest. It made her inner ear feel fuzzy.

"I'm pretty sure there are cameras in the bathroom too."

"Ew."

"Yeah."

"Hey, I've always wanted to ask…" he hesitated with another kind of deep rumble, higher pitched, that she mostly felt. 

"Mm?"

"Where'd you learn how to shoot like that?"

Julie took an extra large step to avoid stumbling over her own feet. The question had made her remember getting caught. 

The memory of pain from the gunshot was hazy now, but she remembered the animal fear freezing her whole body stiff as the mercs pointed her own pistol at her head. 

The panic at seeing the flash of a muzzle behind him. 

She couldn't remember grabbing the gun, and she'd blocked out the image of the man's visor cracking and blood rushing out.

Her hearing must have taken a break because she kept walking while Vex was worriedly asking if she was okay and bending towards her again. He sounded like he'd been asking it for a while.

"I'm fine." she responded automatically, sounding robotic and forced even to herself.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Not your fault." she gritted out.

"Moore, wait." he set a gentle warm palm on her shoulder. Her tunic was thinner than the padded suit she'd worn on the Agilis. She could almost feel the texture of his glove.

She stopped and stood, back achingly straight, as he circled in front of her and placed his other palm on her opposite shoulder. She felt cold all of a sudden. The heat coming off him as he bent to face-level felt like thawing.

"You don't have to go through this alone, you know?" his breath was also warm, smelled fresh. This close she could get a whiff of the rest of him too. There was the same exotic floral scent as her soap but there was something else there too. Something alien but familiar...

"Go through what?" she asked dumbly. She probably shouldn't sniff her crewmate, that was rude.

"Moore - Julie. Listen. I know this is hard, especially for someone with no training, but -"

"Just get to the point." she was getting impatient. He was being a little too nice. Tone too gentle, like he was talking to a scared cat. 

"I'm not sure what your people call it. In the Hierarchy, every turian can talk about the stre-"

She burst out laughing without realizing it and Vex tense-flinched again, releasing her shaking shoulders.

"This past… what, year? I don't even know what date it is. Is it 2187 now?" he opened his mouth, probably to answer but she didn't register it, she just kept talking. 

"We've all been under _stress_ this whole time." she sneered at the concept.

"I've survived husks and bombs and getting shot at and almost crushed to death before. I've seen every abomination those motherfuckers made firsthand and yeah, I made it out through sheer dumb luck. But I made it. We made it. We're safe. We're fine. _I'm_ fine. Why _wouldn't_ I be? Why _now_…"

Julie was breathing hard by the end of her tirade. It took her a couple of heaving moments for the fog of anger to clear and allow her to slow her heart down and calm her breath.

Vex was just standing there in front of her with this pitying look on his face. Damn him and his expressive plates. She hadn't wanted to slip like this. She had herself under control. She could handle it. Everyone else was and they'd been though it all together. No one needed another burden on their hands either.

She'd balled her hands into fists. She didn't know why, she wasn't planning on punching him was she? 

She hoped not, scraped knuckles weren't fun.

Just when the turian seemed close to saying something else, Julie decided she was very hungry and walked past him muttering about the food going cold.

She could feel those pitying eyes boring into the back of her skull the whole way down the corridor.

\-----------

The mess was already populated by most of the crew. It seemed only Alunia was late to the party. 

Julie carefully avoided everyone's eyes and sat in one of the shiny slightly too-tall seats. Everyone but Ianni could reach the floor at least with their toes (like herself). 

The turians and Tenn looked comfortable.

Hal was distracted by something on his omni and swinging his legs back and forth.

Fakra keept glancing over the edge of her seat as though it would break. The legs did look a little… curbed…

A ding sounded over the intercomm and a chipper high-pitched voice announced they would be receiving various dishes.

Julie couldn't understand what most of them were about, but she heard something about grilled fish and decided that would be hers.

At the observation window, a salarian in a pristine white suit and clear-faced helmet rolled in a double layered tray with all sorts of covered plates through the airlock and entered the mess.

Ianni squealed when she opened one and revealed striated little yellow balls in a red sauce. She thanked the salarian who smiled behind their visor and scampered off with her bounty.

Fakra took four plates at random and nodded. The salarian nodded back politely. Liveria sighed in relief.

Apparently, the krogan disliked salarians in general, but had no qualms about eating their food.

Julie peered at the offers curiously, she didn't want to seem ungrateful, but she also didn't want to eat bugs so she cleared her throat and asked which one was the grilled fish.

The salarian clapped their hands in front of their chest and gave her a toothy smile.

"Ah! Good choice, Grilled Perok is one of my very best dishes!" she exclaimed in an adorably high-pitched voice. She sounde young.

She uncovered said dish and made an offering gesture with a dainty white-clad hand.

"It smells amazing!" Julie said after a tentative sniff.

"Yes, the grounded Grogo bark and leaves are key!" the salarian added.

Tenn had come and stealthily grabbed his own dish with an appreciative hum while the two of them talked.

"Did you make this?" Julie asked as she took the fish to the nearby raised counter and perched on the high seat. Her mouth was watering.

"Yes! I'm Marika! I take it you are Dr. Moore?" she offered her right hand.

Julie shook Marika's hand, her long spindly fingers engulfing the human's.

"Call me Julie. Thank you for the meal, Marika. It's been forever since we've had actual cooked food." Julie sat back and took a small bit of fish using the two-pronged fork that was too long for her hand.

Marika watched with rapt interest as Julie took the piece to her mouth. She was a little apprehensive to be monitored while she ate but tried not to show it.

It was amazing, savoury and perfectly seasoned, slightly spicy but with a hint of something fresh behind.

The sound Julie made as she chewed was a little embarasing but it made Marika beam, neat little blunt teeth flashing white behind her visor.

"Your delight is a chef's best reward." the salarian nodded with a smile.

"You're a chef? Damn. It shows."

"Compliments will get you everywhere." Marika gave a little bow.

"Hey!" Everyone turned as Alunia hollered next to the tray. "Who stole my grubs?!" she demanded with a huff. Her eyes looked a little puffy and blue-rimmed. Almost as if she'd been crying.

Everyone turned to look at Ianni as she popped another one of those little yellow balls in her mouth and chewed furiously.

"I live in a den of _thieves_…" Alunia whined dramatically.

She grabbed a plate of raw fish fillets wrapped in green stuff and a thick soup to join Ianni at her table. The maiden offered her the last two grubs and the older asari ate them both at the same time, cheeks puffing while moaning in pleasure.

Julie suppressed a shudder and went back to her grilled fish.

"It must have been awful, being stranded and travelling for so long. I can't imagine living on rations for months… You were stuck on a moon?" Marika murmured.

"Yeah. We lived." Julie shrugged without offering further information and continued stuffing her face. They weren't supposed to talk much about the moon, they didn't want to give any hints to it's location.

She felt a little sorry when she saw Hal, Liveria and Vex chatting over those very same rations.

Marika followed her gaze and looked sad. "We should have the cloned specimens ready in a few days. We detected you on some short-range nodes just three days ago. Not enough time for a proper replication process I'm afraid. And there weren't any turians on Sur'Kesh by the time everything went to shit." she shrugged nonchalantly, making Julie choke on a laugh and a bit of fish at her unexpected vulgarity.

Julie hid a delicate cough behind a fist and nodded.

"I'm not an expert on dextro-dishes, but I'm sure I can whip up something nice when they have the meat ready. Did you know turians are primarily carnivorous by choice? A bit like us. They don't have to, of course, they can digest plant-based nutrients and live off them just fine. I hear that's how they're keeping whatever's left of the turian military going. The quarian live-ships are taxed to the limits but the supplements they provide is vital to everyone stuck on Earth." Marika chattered almost too fast for Julie to follow. 

Her brain was too busy being pleased at the food and forcing herself to chew long enough to savor it rather than wolf it all down.

She took a few moments to digest the information while she chewed thoughtfully. 

"How bad is it back there?" she finally asked.

"Uh. Oh. Um, I probably shouldn't be the one telling you all this. Dalatrass Linron has a meeting scheduled with you all later, she'll probably call the Primarch on Earth then too."

Julie hm'd between small bites. She didn't want to throw up again, keeping food down had been difficult in the last few anxiety-ridden days.

"This Dalatrass… is she the only leader left?" Julie was distantly aware of salarian politics from all the conversations she'd overheard from her salarian colleagues back when she worked on the Citadel and later the Crucible. She tried not to remember they were all probably dead now.

"Not… exactly." Marika mumbled, chipper tone lowering.

That sounded interesting.

"Anyway, I should let you enjoy your meal! There's dessert on the second level! I'll be back later for the dishes." Marika bounced on her feet and bobbed back out the airlock.

Julie watched as the salarian held out her spindly arms for the automated decontamination process to cycle her through.

She polished off her food and resisted the urge to lick the plate. After placing it back on the tray, she made her way to the dextro-trio.

"I see you're already making nice with the locals." Liveria noted. 

Vex's plated face was stony and neutral. 

Hal was sucking paste through his induction port with an audible slurp.

"They're curious where we came from. Marika seems nice though, she's a chef, she told me all the stranded troops are surviving on Earth. It seems the turians are putting a bit of strain on the live-ships." Julie answered.

Hal choked on a laugh. "They're turning _vegetarian_?"

Liveria and Vex both gave a small groaned rumble of disgust.

"Clammed up when I asked about the leading lady though." Julie shrugged and grabbed one of the water bottles on the counter, cracked the seal and sipped.

"Wonder if she's trying to tell us something…" Liveria mused.

"Salarians always good at multi-tasking." Tenn nodded.

"Don't trust any of 'em." Fakra's deep voice startled Julie in her seat. For such a large being, she had ridiculously sneaky feet.

" 'Cept for Green-bean here. He's solid." she added after a moment.

"Sweet talker." Tenn smiled.

"Shouldn't we be past all these… political machinations? I thought that was the whole point of surviving this war, we need to work together now more than ever." Vex mused.

"Kid, if you think power-grabs are gonna stop just because we almost got our asses turned to dust, you're in for a nasty awakenin'. Wouldn't be surprised if another war over resources broke out." Fakra grumbled and then drained a whole water canister, crushed the plastic in a meaty fist and threw it down a nearby recycler chute.

"We're already down to what… less than a _third_ of the previous galactic population?" Vex asked.

"If we're being charitable." Liveria snorted.

"The focus should be on rebuilding. We've got all these accords brokered now, we should use them." Julie found herself nodding along. It was weird agreeing with Vex.

Fakra shook her head, looking genuinely dejected. "We ain't got a common foe now, kid. Just each other and a buncha politicians."

"Then we can't give up." Alunia added. She was wiping a dribble of greenish sauce off her chin. Her eyes still looked a little bloodshot, purple veins creeping over the white sclera.

"We all worked together and got this far. Our governments should be able to do the same."

"Ha! I like your spirit!" the krogan chuckled and patted Alunia on the back. The asari tried not to stagger too much.

<<Attention, crew of the Agilis.>> a monotoned voice announced over the intercomm. <<Dalatrass Linron has called for a debrief followed by a report to Turian High Command. Please proceed to the comm-room.>> as the voice droned on, the little emergency lights on the floor blinked on and off down another corridor, presumably towards the meeting place.

They all shuffled down the indicated path and reached a meeting room sectioned off in half. There was a QEC console in front of the table they were seated at, beyond the transparent plexiglass seal that kept them separate from a tall salarian woman in heavy robes and several of what Julie assumed were her aides or guards.

The latter were armed to the teeth, each guard wore armor and were holding rifles. Their heads would periodically swivel to monitor the room and the other entrance opposite where her team had come through. Julie could see the elbows of other guards posted at the airlock too.

One of aides greeted them and handed the Dalatrass a datapad. It seemed they no longer posed any interest to the salarian. Linron was content to read her pad and ignore them.

She finally put the pad aside and fixed Liveria with those strange black liquid eyes, hints of a frown creasing the lids.

"Captain Sylcus." she began, voice fuzzy through the intercomm. The Caballim straightened.

"It seems our show of goodwill didn't garner one from you. Tell me, why did you destroy parts of your own ship before reaching the Daarshan?"

"We needed omni-gel to repair some seals. Emergency work, you see. Figured we didn't need those parts since the ship would get retrofitted anyway." Liveria shrugged. 

The Dalatrass' frown deepend, a nasty little sneer threatening the corners of her mouth.

"I see." the salarian articulated each word with a tap on the table on her side of the wall.

"No matter. We'll keep our end of the bargain anyway. The Agilis is being retrofitted as we speak."

"Bargain?" Vex asked and clamped his mouth shut with an audible click of mandibles when Liveria threw a sharp glance his way. Julie could feel the two-toned rumble of apology rolling off him. 

Linron smiled, all teeth but the complete opposite of Marika's. It looked vicious. Predatory.

"I'll let your Primarch explain." she clicked a button and turned her seat to face the QEC holo flicker and materialize into the shape of an older turian man with expansive white facial markings.

The turians saluted and the Primarch acknowledged his people with a nod. He gave Linron a perfunctory greeting then addressed her crew.

<<I see only eight of you here. Condolences for your loss, I'll relay Lieutenant Endrizzi's passing to the Alliance, they should find his next of kin if they survived.>>

"His mother lived in Rossano. I… don't know if she made it."

The Primarch's mandibles twitched minutely as everyone paused to look at her.

<<… I'll pass that along.>> he nodded solemnly.

He cleared his throat and continued talking to Liveria.

<<Captain, once you've finished retrofitting the Agilis, you'll have a new mission. The Dalatrass will fill you in on the details of her… _request._>>

So that had been the bargain…

<<We've been trying to make contact with colony worlds. Places the Reapers hadn't hit yet. Usually just a few small homesteads spread over a large area, but those worlds are now important. We need to start growing food again. There aren't that many of us left but we're still scrambling for resources.>>

"Heard you've turned vegetarian, sir." Liveria smirked.

<<Yes, we were very lucky to have the quarians on our side. But we can't count on them forever.>> the Primarch replied dryly. 

<<We've coordinated with the Aliance and some of the Matriarchs and sent a few scouting ships to aid or investigate human, asari and turian held settlements. Most of the colonies have checked in consistently... while a few… have gone dark.>>

There was a pause as Victus let the gravity of the situation settle.

"We've had similar… _issues_." the Dalatrass added. "And we currently don't have the resources to throw any more troops at the problem."

"Looks like plenty a'troops in this room." Fakra grunted from where she was leaning against the far wall.

The salarian leader sneered again. "These troops are needed here." 

Victus coughed delicately. Julie had a feeling he'd just hid a chuckle but couldn't be sure.

<<Captain, you and your crew should enjoy your R&R as much as you can, I'm sending you in the unknown. Except for the last routine info-packets, we've got no more intel from the colonies that have gone dark.>>

Julie's eyes lost focus. She still remembered the news back when human colonies started disappearing. Still remembered calling her parents over and over and over again and getting nothing. But Horizon was a long time ago, and the Collectors were gone. It had to be something else.

"Fortunately, the crew we sent to the colony on Raekan managed to send us some intel before going dark." the Dalatrass opened her omni-tool and the holographic interface on their table sprung to life. It showed an overview of the Annos Basin, then expanded to the a nearby solar system that wasn't tagged with a name and zoomed in on the second planet from the sun, Raekan, smack dab in the middle of the system's Goldilocks Zone.

"This is all strictly confidential, of course. The Salarian Union has kept a part of it's colonies secret for a reason. Batarian pirates never had much luck abducting salarian slaves anyway." she smiled genuinely for the first time. It made Julie's skin crawl. Humanity had been obligated to declare all it's colonies and they had been a favored target by the now almost extinct Batarian slavers. 

"The colony has mostly been geared towards maintaining hatcheries and other projects sanctioned by the Union. An important part of our depleted population will be growing there and we have a shipment than needs recovering. We need Raekan back." Linron's tone turned sombre. 

"We're saving salarian _babies_?" Ianni bounced in her seat and immediately cringed back after she'd called attention to herself.

"If you like to think of it that way. There might be some populated pools and the island has been mostly terraformed. We can grow crops there." Linron shrugged.

"What has it been growing so far?" asked Alunia.

"_You_ don't need to know that." the salarian shook her head and queued a video.

"Now, this is the last communication we've had from the team we sent."

The video cut to a wrinkly, grey salarian. It looked as though the data had been corrupted and restored, the video was patchy and had what looked like compression artifacts. It also looked like it had been edited but Julie supposed this was the information that they 'needed to know'.

<<-_ is Captain Gerlee speaking! We--- m--de c---tact with --e colo-i-ts b-t the--- act--ng str--ge. Las- ni-- we cau--t a gl--pse of an un----fied shi-_ >>

The video changed to a blurry image of a smudge in the sky. It was impossible to determine its make or even its shape.

<<_Whe- --sked, the c-loni--s stop res----ing and igno-e us. We'll che-- the surr---ng area in th- mor--ng and re-_>>

The video cut the salarian off mid-word.

The Dalatrass showed the photo of the blurr in the sky again.

"None of our experts can determine what this is, but if it's got Gerlee worried, it must be important. I want you to head there as soon as possible and restore communication. Your new QEC will make all the difference, we won't have to rely on ancient sattellites and and network nodes."

Linron swept through a couple of more menus on her omni and displayed an image of the colony as seen from above.

"This is how the colony used to look." 

The image showed several pre-fab buildings and three large modern-looking buildings made of glass that looked like they had waterfalls in them. Tiny figures were milling about the whole place. Vehicles and people. 

It was blurred at the edges. The deep green of plant-life was probably the other thing they had growing there.

"And this is the most recent picture Gerlee sent."

The new image was notably corrupted, but Julie could see the three glass buildings had decayed somehow. They now had a greenish tint and seemed unkept.

Some of the prefab buildings were missing or looked stripped down and there were barely a few tiny figures dotted here and there. No vehicles.

"Something happened. Your task is to restore comms and bring Gerlee's package back. I see your crew complement is less than ideal for a ship like the Agilis. You'll be taking two of my men with you."

"Wait, we're not a delegation or a taxi." Liveria cut in.

"Yeah, and there's nine of us." Vex added. "Tony said the geth counts." he explained after a confused silence. Julie would have thanked him but it didn't feel like the right time.

"It can't consume any of your resources so it doesn't." the salarian slashed the air in front of her with a thin palm.

"Plus, if you like, you can leave some of your… _non-essential_ crew here and take more able-bodied soldiers. You don't need a geologist where you're going and your Chief medical Examiner should know we have the best reconstructive surgery facilities that aren't on the Citadel. I'm certain she would like to fix her injuries."

"_She_ will stay with her _crew_." Alunia, who was sitting beside Julie, flipped her crooked middle finger at the salarian under the table. 

Julie swallowed a giggle.

"Our crew stays together, we're good in this formation. We're not trading anyone off the ship." Liveria stated with finality.

<<I agree with the Captain's assessment of her crew. For such a motely group, they've done well for themselves.>> the Primarch said. He'd been quietly watching them all while the Dalatrass was laying out the mission parameters.

"Mmmyes, so well that they lost a crew member just before escaping-"

_<<Dalatrass.>>_ the Primarch warned as Fakra pushed off the bulkhead and took a few purposefully heavy steps to the transparent wall. She was so close her breath left it foggy. She could probably shatter the whole thing with a headbutt. 

Julie's vision had gone dark and a bitter, fishy tasting saliva flooded her mouth. She was clutching her knees so hard under the table she was pretty sure she'd have bruises forming. Still, it was the good kind of pain. It stopped her from smashing something, or heaving out her guts.

Vex, who was standing behind her, must have seen it because he put a reassuring warm hand on her shoulder and she slowly relaxed and unclawed her fingers.

"If you want to trade favors, Dalatrass, I'd suggest not insulting my crew." Liveria's tone was low and a gritty, an angry sounding buzz reverberating into the room.

"It was just a statement of fact, but duly noted. Either way. At least two of my people will accompany you if you want your ship back."

<<Dalatrass Linron. Did you just _threaten_ a Captain of my navy in front of me?>> Victus hummed. He almost sounded amused. Julie didn't know if she should hate him for it.

"No, I set the terms of our bargain down so no one has any ilusions. Don't play coy, Primarch, you know what you agreed to." the salarian grinned, entirely too pleased with herself.

Victus shook his head and sighed then looked at Liveria with something like regret etched on his rigid features.

<<You have your orders Captain. Get it done. We'll talk more once your ship is ready.>> he ordered, nodded his farewell and cut the channel.

The Dalatrass spent the next hour setting their itinerary and introducing them to their future teammates. Two juvenile-looking guards from her own entourage. They were eager like all young soldiers before their first real mission.

It was only at the end that Julie realized Tenn hadn't uttered a single word, or moved from his spot. He'd only watched and listened and frowned at the young guards as they saluted and escorted the Dalatrass out. He was just as quiet for the rest of the cycle.

\------------

As soon as they were back to their tiny rooms, Hal and Vex went door to door and killed every piece of wetware they could find.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My updates all over the place, sorry for that. Life and all.
> 
> I always figured Linron would survive the war and make trouble, so here she is - making trouble!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	15. Fernando

Quarantine only lasted for three more days and then the crew were told they'd be taken down to the planet. Initial estimations put them at about a month in the salarians' care before they could be on their way.

They didn't see much of the Dalatrass after the first meeting. They had left on the same shuttle as her, but apparently Dalatrasses travelled in style. 

The shuttle was so big that Julie only got a glimpse of her robes as she boarded ahead of them and sequestered herself in the biggest suite available.   
Not that their travelling arrangements were anything to snort at, they had ridiculously comfortable lounging chairs, footrests with massage-function (that only Tenn could use), a really big bathroom (did it _need_ a shower?), ambiance music, adjustable lighting and Marika who was apparently preparing snacks for the Dalatrass and her guests.

It was all grossly unnecessary and wasteful. It made Julie hate this Linron woman even more. She wondered how many people were suffering with nothing to eat or drink while the Dalatrass still lived in the lap of luxury. Of course, this had been true before the war too but now it was like adding insult to injury.

The ride was fairly short for such a complicated affair, they did get to eat Marika's delicious snacks (Julie still avoided the raw fish and bugs - which her asari companions were only too glad to take off the tray) and chat with her a little just before landing.

The young salarian was as genial as ever and she seemed particularly friendly towards Julie, who couldn't figure out what angle was being played because everything they talked about was harmless.   
Hearing about various seasonings and how other species liked certain foods actually sounded interesting when Marika was talking. That, or Julie had really missed having someone new to interact with.

They landed somewhere in Talat, or close to it. The exact location was witheld for "security reasons", not that any of them knew the megalopolis, perhaps save for Tenn.

Just as the others were going down the ramp, Marika was ahead of Julie down the corridor. Juliemust have tripped on something while walking and listening to the salarian chatter animatedly about how to correctly fille fish because the next thing she knew, Julie flomped face-first into Marika's chest.

She apologized while rubbing her nose, Marika's thin fingers loosely wrapped around her bicep, helping her right herself.  
The salarian patted her shoulder and helped her down the ramp. It felt nice to casually touch someone again.

The air was warm and humid, sun shining halfway down in the sky. There was the sound of insects or birds or whatever analogues Sur'Kesh had, chittering and chirping chaotically in the lush vegetation in the distance.

A many-winged creature the size of Julie's open palm zoomed about her head in quick, tight loops, maneuvering more skillfully than any mechanical craft. It's iridescent wings reflecting light in a beautifully wild display of color.

Julie closed her eyes and tilted her head up. It felt good to have her skin warmed by a friendly sun again.  
To feel the slight breeze on her face.

She breathed deep and smiled up without realizing it. When she righted herself, she could see Vex with his ams slightly raised at his sides.   
He looked like a lazy lizard sunning himself and the thought made her snicker.

He heard her and glanced behind, a languid turian smile pulling at his mandibles.   
She was glad he didn't hold her outburst against her. Or the fact that she'd mostly avoided him in fear of rehashing that awful conversation again.

She was tugged along by an equally smiling Marika, who must have understood the importance of the moment and allowed her time to settle. Julie was oddly grateful for that.

They were then taken to the an expansive facility, which Marika said was one of the biggest collection of breeding pools on Sur'Kesh. 

They weren't allowed anywhere near the laboratories or the pools, but taken to the upper levels where the Dalatrass held her seat of power.  
Julie couldn't see any obvious surveillance cameras around the ceiling, but you never knew with salarians.

"Do all Dalatrasses rule over facilities like this one?" Julie asked Marika as their group was led down an opulent hallway. Sylcus and Vex in front immediately turned their attention towards them.

"Not… usually, no." the girl answered tightly.

"Then wh-"

"Oh, look! We've arrived at your rooms! I hope you have a pleasant stay. Someone will come back for you later for a meal!" Marika excused herself with a forced smile

They were ushered into a shared living space with multiple adjoining bedrooms and a shared common space. It was three times as big as the Agilis...

"You get the feeling we're bein' kept like someone's prized varren?" Fakra asked with a snort of disgust.

"Hal, think you can eliminate all the surveillance here? Don't like clingy salarian politicians much." Liveria added.

Hal bounced on his feet and dragged Vex behind him to scan the common room.

Julie set her little bag of belongings on the floor and walked to the giant, wall-sized window in front.

The scenery was breathtaking. 

They lived in a sort of city within a city. Their facility separate somehow from the rest of the buildings.  
Everything was enveloped in vegetation. The air smelled like what she imagined a jungle might smell like. Damp and green and earthy.

She could see skycars and ground vehicles milling about in the distance. Their sounds muted by the dense foliage and the thick glass of the window.  
The traffic seemed to always go around the area they were in. This place must have been off-limits to the general population then.   
It made Julie suddenly feel uneasy.

"Looks like paradise, doesn't it?" she murmured when she felt a presence behind her.

"The demons are in charge though." Alunia replied.

"Think she's gonna let us off the hook after we do her mission?" Ianni asked.

Fakra rumbled a laugh and walked past them to the first bedroom Hal and Vex had cleared.

Alunia and Ianni trailed after the two men, chatting about how big the bedrooms were compared to the tiny cubicles back in the Daarshan orbital station.

Liveria came up next to her to admire the view. Turian warmth was a little stifling in the humid heat of Sur'Kesh, Julie had already started sweating a little even before the living furnace came over.

"How are you holding up, Doc?" she asked lightly.

"Vex put you up to this?" Julie crossed her arms. It was a bad move, now she was even warmer but she refused to _fidget_.

"He already talked to you?" the surprise sounded genuine.   
Julie was kind of miffed she was so easy to read.

"Sort of."

"Did the idiot make it worse?" 

Julie heaved a sigh and shook her head. "My bullshit isn't anyone else's problem."

"He cares about you, you know." 

Julie froze. With the sun setting, she could now see her reflection in the window. She looked thin and frail with dark bags under her eyes, like someone had shaken the meat off her bones, like a husk only starting to turn.

"We all do." Liveria added, the turian's own reflection meeting her eyes on the window.  
"Some of us just suck at showing it more than others." she shrugged with one of her secretive smiles.

"I think we're all emotionally constipated." Julie deadpanned.

Liveria's sudden bark of laughter brought a smile to Julie's mirror twin. 

"You got me there." the Captain patted her shoulder and something crinkled.

They both looked between them, then down at her shoulder.  
Julie tugged the wide-necked tunic she was wearing down. Under the strap of her bra, there was a small piece of folded up, soft white paper.

Julie blinked at the offending item, that was definitely not on there when she'd dressed this morning.  
Liveria picked it off delicately and unfolded it with the tips of her talons.

There was a crudely drawn fish on one side, almost childlike in it's simplicity, and illegible writing on the other. The script was probably salarian common, but Julie couldn't make sense of it.

"Alunia, can you come over here for a sec?" Liveria rose her voice to be heard over the hum of conversation from another room.

"Yeah?" the asari limped over. The rest of the group followed from the last room they'd rid of spyware.

"What's this say?"

Alunia hummed and rubbed her chin while she read, then scratched at the white tattoo bisecting it.

"Looks like a bunch of gibberish to me." she shrugged.

"Maybe it's... coded?" Julie guessed.

Hal walked over and scanned the paper. The script appeared on his holographic interface and a few other windows opened on the sides, showing various decryption algorithms iterating through the text.

"We need the key for this." the quarian tapped his omni-tool

"There's a drawing on the back." Liveria turned the paper over.

"Salarian common for fish…" Hal typed something. "Not it."

The group went silent as each member tried to puzzle out the mystery.

Julie felt like she should know something. Why would someone slip this on her, unless she knew the answer?

"Who gave you this?" Vex asked.

"We sort of… found it on her." Liveria answered.

"What do you mean 'on her'?" Alunia frowned.

"... under her clothes." Liveria said

"What?!" Vex yelled.

"Shhh, I'm trying to think." Julie walked away from the source of noise.

Fakra chuckled as she passed, but Julie was too busy thinking to notice the conciliatory pat on the shoulder the large krogan gave Vex, who stumbled from the force of it.

"What was that grilled fish I ate called? I know it…" she mumbled to herself.

  
"Why is no one at least a _little_ concerned someone on this planet is slipping secret messages under people's clothes?" Vex garbled a frustrated sounding buzz.

"It's not really any worse than the cameras in the bathroom. Actually, this is kind of tame by comparison." Ianni mused.

"That's not the po-"

"Grilled Perok!" she exclaimed with a raised finger.

Hal nodded and dutifully typed in.   
"Success!"

The text changed and Alunia dragged the quarian's arm toward her.

"_412 dash 098. After dinner. Come alone. Trust no one._"  
"That mean anything to anyone?" the asari asked.

"I saw the hallways are numbered when they brought us here. We're on 476." Ianni supplied.

"Salarian Union official building sorting code." Tenn nodded.

"Great, you can help me find it." Julie rubbed her hands together.

"Wait, are you actually considering going there? It said '_trust no one_'. How do we know we can trust whoever sent this?" Vex protested, squaring his shoulders and putting himself bodily in Julie's path to the exit.

"Gimpy has a point." Fakra grunted.

"Something's rotten on this planet, I think this might be someone asking for help." Alunia said.

"That doesn't mean we just go along with cryptic messages shoved down our _clothes_." Vex argued.

"You're really bothered about the clothes part, huh?" his cousin asked.

"And what, we should just ignore this? What if someone really does need help? What if we can do something about that scheming Dalatrass? It's _got_ to be important." Julie gestured wildly with her hands. She could finally do something other than sit around. She coud help. 

"I don't know, Julie. I'm not too keen on the alone part." Hal spoke.

"Exactly." Vex smiled at his friend and Hal perked up.

"Julie, this sounds risky." Liveria started.

"Not you too… Come on, I can do this."

"Like hell you can, the last time you went off alone, you almost-" Vex stopped talking with a loud clack of hastily drawn together mandibles.

"You think I don't know that better than anyone?!" Julie shouted and immediately regretted it at his tense-flinch. She never thought turians were even capable of doing the kicked-puppy look.

She couldn't handle all their worried looks. Even Hal was radiating pity and concern by the way his shoulders were sagging forward and his nervous hand-rubbing.  
Julie turned, grabbed her bag and excused herself, saying she needed a shower.

She ended up taking a bath. Turned out, the bedrooms each had wide shallow pools of hot water. It helped relax her sore body better than any rest she'd gotten before. She spent the better part of an hour in there and came out flushed red and with the pads of her toes and fingers all wrinkly.   
The extra toiletries were the cherry on the cake.

Once upon a time, Julie had had some sense of vanity about her person. After she'd left the confines of home and studied a few years on the Citadel, she had enjoyed looking a certain way and had taken advantage of the commodities of modern cosmetics and medicine. A steady paycheck in her mid-twenties had allowed her the freedom to work and look good without too much effort.

The last vestiges of that old life were still marginally visible but she felt diminished, somehow. Distilled to her barest essentials.   
The War had taken everything that really mattered to her, but at least she didn't have to worry about the human reproductive cycle, unbalanced hormones or unwanted body hair. Her priorities had been shallow in hindsight and fitted to her old life back then and it made her feel like a completely different person.

She scoffed at the thin reflection in the tall mirror. 

The Agilis and the mining facility only had polished surfaces to see oneself in, no mirrors to speak of (who needed to look good doing backbreaking work or fighting, after all). It was strange to see herself again, more solid and real than the ghostly, transparent apparition she'd seen in the window.  
Still tired and worn, but better. _Cleaner_, at least.  


By the time she was dressed in a new tunic and pants (she'd really sweated the other clothes out) a juvenile salarian brought them trays of food and set them on the big table in the middle of the common room.   
The Grilled Perok was missing and she picked at something noodly marinated in a red sauce and some leafy purplish things, then she retreated back to her room and waited for the others to finish and turn in.

When she couldn't hear anyone else (apparently they'd discovered their own bath pools), she quietly slipped out of her room and out into the dark of the common space.

Tenn was waiting for her, dozing in an elongated armchair. He opened his dark liquid eyes and motioned her over with a smile then handed her the same scrap of paper with arrows scribbled over the fish.   
Directions!

She nodded her thanks and slipped out as quietly as she could.

  
\---------

  
Finding the right room was harder than she thought. She had to wait out a couple of young guards. They were laughing together while drunkenly leaning against a wall, taking turns drinking from a wide flask.  
Lucky her. She was _not_ the sneaking type.  
  
They finally moved on, leaning on each other for support and she darted down the next corridor.

This damn place was a maze.

She finally made it to room 098, hours later than what she supposed constituted as 'after dinner'. With her luck, no one would be there by now. She half hoped there wasn't.

A veiled figure startled when she entered. 

"Marika?"

"… you're _here_… I almost…" the young salarian breathed deep in relief.

"I figured it was you." Julie smiled. "Why call me here though? Liveria calls the shots."

"You had the least surveillance on you." Marika shrugged. "An injured, mentally scarred human geologist doesn't get too high on the threat level. If you'd been a biotic - maybe."

"Damn, that's harsh."

"Sorry." the salarian bobbed her head, thin lips pursed.

"All I had to do was neutralize the blood tracking isotopes."

"Blood tracking?!"

"I'm surprised none of you noticed, must have been really hungry - those oafs contaminated my work the first time, except for the turians, had their own rations. Don't worry, I neutralized it with tonight's dinner."

"I uh, didn't eat much…"

"Was it not to your liking?" she asked in concern, then shook her head. "Nevermind, one bite was enough. The door wouldn't have opened for you otherwise."

"Won't they notice?"

"They'll assume your crewmate, Tenn Colls, still has connections here. His youngest sister leads most of the clan present here. You did good disabling all the security in your suite too, and back on the orbital station. Sets a precedent for non-compliant behaviour."

"I can guess why the secrecy. But what's this about?"

"I suppose it's fairly obvious the Dalatrass rules with an iron fist, as you humans are so fond of saying." Marika sounded nothing like her former self. Even her voice was lower pitched.   
Julie wondered if anything from the persona she presented in public was true.   
Was 'Marika' even her name? The thought made Julie uncomfortable.

"I never lied about who I am." the young salarian stated, as if reading her mind. "I really used to be a chef, number three on the Citadel. Well, probably number one now. T'Laris died and I don't know what happend to her sister." there was grief there. Well hidden.

"I need your help." she finished.

"To do what?"

"I need you to convince your crew to help me remove the current Dalatrass Linron from power."

Julie's eyes widened. She'd never helped bring down a government before. 

"You probably suspect it, but Dalatrass Linron is corrupt. Why do you think she insisted on the quarantine, or accepted to repair your ship with precious few parts?"

"I thought she wanted the colony…"

"The colony and it's produce are a bonus for her, it'll help her status. What she's really after is that Reaper parasite you found. She plans on wiping out the krogan and probably using it against her other enemies. We have state of the art genetic facilities on Sur'Kesh, this is where the genophage was made and cured, and this is where she wants to make something worse."

Julie shook her head. The krogan had suffered enough, she'd heard rumors about a cure while working on the Crucible, then news about how the krogans were helping turians.

"We didn't bring any samples with us, not even our first scans. Those things are too dangerous to use. That _whole planet_ needs to burn." the anger bubbled just under her skin, crawling up her throat in hot waves, but she was careful to keep her voice down.

"I agree. But she'll torture the location out of you once you're done with Raekan anyway."

"That fucking asshole." Julie muttered.

Marika hid an unexpected giggle, something of her old self showing through. Maybe everything hadn't been a lie after all.

"She's got plenty of misdeeds at home too. Not only did she refuse to help the war effort, once most of the Military and the STG defected for the Sol system, she illegally confiscated public and private assets and domains, took over many of the nurseries with her little army of gullible youth in the name of 'unity' and killed six other Dalatrasses with comparable power, who could have stood against her - during a state dinner on neutral ground, no less."

"_How_…"

"You've been gone a long time. The galaxy has moved forward. The Salarian Union exists in name only. Linron controls our offspring, most of our farms and all the big ship repair and production depots this side of the planet. There's some active resistance from the remaining Dalatrasses who remained on Sur'Kesh, but they're outmanned, even together."

"Jesus."

"No time for prayers. Will you help me or not?" Marika asked, her gaze was flinty when Julie met her eyes.

"Of course I will. She's bad news for everyone." Julie frowned.

Marika's shoulders relaxed and the hint of a smile played about her stretchy mouth.

Then she told Julie her plan.

\----------

Getting back to their suite was almost as complicated as finding the meeting spot.  
It was close to dawn, the hazy shine of the sun rising from behind the jungle colored the sky in tones of blue, pink and orange, faintly illuminating the hallways through the thick windows.

Vex was waiting for her outside their suite, casually leaning against the wall and watching the sun rise. He looked almost… wistful.

She didn't know if she should say something to him or not. Even she was tired of her outbursts. Should probably apologize for being so short with him. 

"Did you find what you were looking for?" he asked first while she was worrying at the hem of her tunic.

"Uh… we should probably talk inside." 

"Wait." 

Julie waited as he pushed off and fixed her with one of those intense looks only turians could pull off, head tilted down, beady eyes narrowed. He looked… resolute but sad somehow.

"What you're doing. It's not gonna work forever." 

"What am I-"

"Running headlong into dangerous situations. Honestly, I don't know if you're brave or foolish."

Well, at least he didn't call her 'stupid'.

"I can't force you to, but you're gonna have to face everything that's happened to you eventually." he shook his head and looked away.

The words made her head spin. He was right, she was foolish. She wanted to run.

"Lu was close to getting her psychologist degree..." 

Julie blinked away the blurr around her eyes and pushed past him into the suite.

"Don't wait too long."

\----------

  
The Captain was waiting inside when she got in. Tenn looked subdued in the same armchair she'd left him. 

Julie looked away, a stab of shame making her unable to look Liveria in the eye.   
The older woman only shook her head and called the rest of the group to join them. Vex came in last, not even glancing at her.

Julie got a water canister for herself, she had a lot to talk about.

It was morning by the time she finished explaining everything. The only time anyone else had spoken was to ask a few clarifying questions here and there. Julie's mouth was dry and she drained the water, she'd been taking small sips over time. She felt oddly like after presenting her doctorate paper. Tired, scared but happy to finally get it all out.

  
"I don't think the Primarch had overthrowing tyrants in mind when he sent us here." Liveria was staring off into the distance, eyes unfocused.

"I can't let that slimy little pyjack kill my people, not when we have families again..." Fakra growled. She had been mostly silent while Julie talked, frowning the whole time. "If you don't do anythin' about it, I'll crush her next chance I get."

"That's a fast way to get yourself killed." Vex warned. He and Liveria had been the most engaged in her presentation.

"Not before I take her down." the krogan rumbled, amused.

"Let's not lose any of us, yeah?" Alunia leaned forward in her too-long seat. She and Ianni looked like children in the salarian chairs.

"We've got to do _something_." Hal added and Ianni nodded.

"My people are at a crossroads." Tenn spoke, uncharacteristically slowly, as though he was testing the words out. 

Liveria sighed.  
"Fine, we'll consider it. Are you sure it was her and not her twin evil sister though? She sounds… different."

"She _is_ different." Julie replied.

Preparing to implement Marika's plan didn't take all that much. The young salarian had transferred Linron's itinerary for the whole week.  
She would be entertaining diplomats from their nearby colony-world Halegeuse.   
The three Dalatrasses running the world had been bullied into signing an abusive treaty with Linron, who wanted their Helium-3 and a hand in their governing. In exchange, they would get eezo and parts for their shield generators - without which they would die from radiation poisoning.

Marika was mostly certain Linron wouldn't try to kill her new subjects (this time).

  
The plan was relatively simple. A big dinner was to be held on a lower level, where Linron would make a show of all the nurseries she controlled and how many resources she could share.  
While Halegeuse had domes where botanists and engineers worked together to grow some of their basic foods it was nothing compared to the wealth the homeworld could produce. The excess food was another way for her to show her power.

Once Linron and a big chunk of her personal guards were gone, someone would sneak into her chambers and hack her personal terminal to download as much data as they could.  
Presumably, she had records and contracts of all her shady deals. Details of her plans with the krogan. Marika expected anything damning to be on there, heavily encrypted, but Linron apparently liked keeping track of her work.

A state dinner usually involved a lot of posturing and fanfare, and Linron seemed to enjoy the attention her position brought so Marika estimated they'd have enough time to get what they needed and give her the information 

Once ready, the ground-crew would provide backup for Marika when she got to the banquet hall where she would publicly expose Linron (bacause, of course, the event was broadcasted on live holo all over the planet) and hopefully convince the other three Dalatrasses to stand against the tyrant, maybe even get some of her idealistic young soldiers to switch sides.

Marika hadn't provided any details, but it sounded like she'd been talking to the diplomats from Halegeuse for a while and they'd timed their visit to coincide with the Agilis' arrival.  
It was a little intimidating to realize Marika had probably been arranging for this before they even left the moon.

The only hitch was that they were all invited to the ceremony as well.  
Linron wanted to boast about her plans to recover lost colonies and wave around her great political ties to species from all over the galaxy.

Probably humble-brag about repairing their ship too.

They were still working out how one of them would sneak off and do the deed. Marika had also provided them with maps of the repair and service ducts that ran all over the building.  
Most of the big ones were monitored but with all the attention on the banquet hall, access to smaller ducts and the cooperation of certain key personnel she wouldn't name, the trek to Linron's suite was "84% assured" (Julie worried a little for the remaining 16% and wondered how the hell Marika even got those numbers, but she decided ignorance in the matter was better for her sanity).

  
"We still haven't decided who we're sendin'." the krogan rumbled.

The group paused above their plates. They were having dinner together and hammering out the details of their plan.   
This time, the dextro crowd had their own assortment of fresh food (which they had practically inhaled while the rest savored their meals).   
Apparently, the specimens the salarian biologists had cloned for them had grown and matured enough to be sacrificed. They were preparing vats of protein for extra ration packs but vat-grown meat just didn't taste the same.

She'd never seen Vex or Liveria eat so fast or messily before.  
Even Hal had sucked his sterilized potion dry from it's aluminium tube and was starting on another one.

"Wasn't it clear that was me?" the quarian asked, mouth sounding full.

"They'll be watching all of you, didn't you see the 'threat diagram'?" Julie said.

"Hmph, at least these pyjacks _know_ to fear me." Fakra poorly hid a belch behind a closed fist. She'd been trying her hand at manners after finally noticing Ianni cringe every time she was gross. Julie had gotten used to it, but the extra effort was appreciated.

"I can't believe I rank next to last." Alunia hummed. "That's kind of insulting, I can crush bones just fine with my biotics."

"It's kind of funny I'm just above you." Ianni giggled.

"And Hal is just after me and Tenn in the 'red zone'." Vex added. He'd finished eating before everyone else.   
Julie waited until his eyes flicked to her face and hooked her finger in the air in front of her mouth to indicate he had something stuck to his upper mouth-plate. Vex hastily wiped at the spot with the balled up tissue in his hand and Julie hid a snicker.

"I'm kind of flattered." Hal added after swallowing loudly. "People usually saw me as a nuisance or a vagrant." 

"The ducts we're supposed to travel through are pretty tight though, your shoulders won't fit through them." Alunia was picking at the remains of her bugs, she'd left the little thin legs behind.

"Is this a bad time to mention I'm claustrophobic?" Ianni asked.

"We know, hun." Alunia waved her away.  
Julie hadn't known that.

There was a long stretch of silence during which Julie was waiting for someone, anyone, to state the obvious. She was even trembling a little in anticipation. 

  
"Are you sure Hal can't-" Vex started.

"Really?" she deflated.

Liveria swore under her breath and Fakra sat back to pick her teeth with a knife.

"I know none of you are happy with this, but think of it this way. What other choice do we have?" Julie argued.

  
"Not participating another option." Tenn offered.   
"Let Marika act alone."   
Julie ignored him.

"Hal, you can hook up to my omni and do your thing right?" Julie asked.

"Theoretically, if Linron doesn't have any jammers installed. Either way, I have some independant algorithms I've been tweaking at, courtesy of our friend." 

"And what will you do if someone catches you?" Vex fixed her with that unsettling green stare of his again, like he was weighing her worth and found her lacking. Like he used to look at her back on the moon. She didn't like it.

"I'll pretend to be sick to get away in the first place. Linron's suite is above ours, it'll be an accident. Dumb human can't remember hall numbers." she shrugged.

"That's it? What if they imprison you? Or what of they catch you in the ducts and just kill you then and there?" the turian shot back, subvocals echoing like a drill in his chest.

Julie swallowed and sat straight in her long chair. She was aware of the danger, but saying out loud made it realer somehow.

  
She swallowed the knot in her throat.  
"Again, what choice do we have? None of you can go, and we can't just abandon Marika." 

"Oh, so this is about you being the big damn hero again, is it?"

"What?!"

"That's the problem with you humans, think you can save everyone if you just try hard enough. Maybe the salarians should handle this themselves." 

"How the hell is this even-"

"Enough, both of you." Liveria interrupted.

"Vex has point. Marika will act with or without help." Tenn said.

"Then they'll all just kill each other and Linron escapes, what does _that_ solve?!" Julie couldn't believe they were getting cold feet now.

"Be a shame if that cook died." Fakra mused and threw five spongy blue cakes into her maw.

"Better her than us." Alunia said.

"But - we already agreed to help…" Julie looked pleadingly between her crewmates.

"_You_ agreed to _ask_ us to help. She never discussed anything with _us_." Alunia countered.

"It's a bit late for that now, we already have everything planned out, and the dinner is tomorrow!" Julie tried one last time.

Another paused settled over the group. Julie knew the decision was mostly up to Liveria, but having more people on her side wouldn't have hurt.

  
"You better come back whole, Doc." Fakra said after sharing a nod with Liveria.  
"I'll cause some ruckus, make sure they're focused on the _biggest_ threat." she laughed her evil little laugh.

"She hates krogans, you sure you want to put yourself in her sights?" Vex asked. He was still miffed about the earlier disagreement and didn't like that Liveria took the decision without him, but like it always was with these two, she would lead and he would follow.

"Ha! What makes you think I'm not there already?" Fakra cackled a little and exhaled. "She wants to show off her pet alien crew, I'll show her the krogan bites the hand that feeds her." she grinned, showing off her pale yellow teeth.

"If it'll come down to it, Julie will be better off away from the fighting anyway." Liveria got up to wash her plate.

Vex grunted, still unsatisfied but compliant and followed the Captain.

"This does not sound like a good motivator for the rest of us." Hal warbled while hooking a straw in his water canister and introducing it into his mouthport at the other end.

"I don't suppose we'll be allowed to take our guns." Alunia said after a jaw-cracking yawn, then draped herself along her long chair in a strangely pretzel-like position.

"Have to rely on biotics." Vex answered.

"And _me_." added Fakra.

"Might have solution for gun problem." Tenn raised a thin finger.  
"Some members of family serve as cleaning aides. Willing to hide small handguns under decorated chairs." he continued after all the attention turned to him.

Liveria wobbled her head in admiration. "Nice."

"Can they smuggle me a shotgun?" Fakra tried.

"Afraid size limitations severe." Tenn shook his head.

"Dammit, I hate those peashootes. Gotta focus on not crushing 'em…" the krogan grumbled.

The rest of the evening was spent together, none of the crew wanting to part yet, until Liveria ordered everyone to get some shut-eye and get themselves ready for tommorow.   
It would be a long day.


	16. Killer Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not fic if it doesn't have a fancy party.

And a long day it was.

Apparently the Dalatrass wanted them looking their best for her banquet.   
As soon as they were done with breakfast, one of her aides showed up and started ordering them around. 

First on the list was clean and repaired armors for the turians. Neither of them accepted the suits brought to them and opted to manually re-shine their old gear to satisfaction.

The aide attempted to tell Fakra to wear some of the robes he'd brought, but one angry snort from the large woman had him scurrying to Tenn, who also declined a new suit and got started patching up his old armor too.

Exasperated, the aide turned to the two asari, who were actually eager to get fancy new clothes. Ianni was given an asari designed deep purple gown with little cutouts to show her waist that fit her perfectly and Alunia was surprised to find a deep charcoal human-made tuxedo, tailored to her measurements, waiting in one of the trunks.   
The white gloves it came with made the intent behind it clear. The Dalatrass was a mean-spirited _bitch_.

As for herself, Julie got corraled into wearing a hideously red gown, also asari in design, that had a tasteless cut down her left leg and a low, low, loooooowwww back.  
If the thing didn't have a bit of adhesive gel right where it bottomed out, she was fairly certain her ass-crack would show.

It would also be a nightmare to move in.

She tired weasling out of wearing it by showing the aide her bullet-wound scar, a puckered splash of reddish flesh on her middle with the tail-end of it showing at her back.   
The aide just waved her off and decided the visible damage was negligible enough not to warrant any attention.

She tried arguing with the aide some more, asking where they'd even gotten the damn things, but he'd simply shrugged and told her the fabricators made those after being fed with their measurements and several terrabytes worth of focus-test data on what salarians expected to see in alien races.  
It was just her luck the automated algorythm decided to give her the skimpiest outfit possible. She was half-convinced they'd made the fabricator VI watch human cartoons for inspiration.

Admittedly, both Alunia and Ianni looked like they approved of their things (sans the gloves). And the suits they'd brought for the others, while ultimately refused, didn't look half-bad either. 

  
Hal decided to steal one of Fakra's rejected shawls and fashion it into a new hood for himself. He looked good in geometrically patterned navy. 

After wasting half of the day on wardrobe and a light lunch, the group was coached in salarian court etiquette.   
Mostly it resumed to, sit down and eat your food without spilling anything. Say hello and nod politely if addressed but don't talk to anyone.

Then the aide finally left them alone to prepare themselves.

Julie decided to soak in the hot pool again for a while, get her nerves to calm down. Now that the time was approaching, her anxiety was going through the roof.  
Her heart rate was elevated, she was stress-sweating (hence the bath) and her stomach gave ominous rumbles.

Apparently the lunch hadn't been light enough, because she hurled it back up just as she was exiting the hot pool, luckily getting to the toilet in time.

She looked at herself in the mirror after she was done washing her mouth and face. She didn't look as shitty as before, but she wouldn't be winning any beauty pageants any time soon. 

She tried the products that the aide had brought. Just some mascara and a tube of lipstick but they actually helped make her look less like she'd almost died a few weeks ago.

Linron had gotten a few them something to freshen up with and look good on camera. The asari got special crayon-like things to accentuate their brows, lips and crests with.   
Nothing for the rest though. She supposed alien resources were scarce and not exactly in demand on Sur'Kesh. That, or nobody cared about prettying up a krogan and two irritable turians.

By the time she was done stuffing herself into the gown, adjusting everything so she didn't have her ass hanging out, and pinning her hair up in something resembling a elegant-ish messy bun, the others were already filing out of the suite.

Vex was seated in his newly polished old armor and was staring wide-eyed as she finally exited her room.

"Ugh, I know, I look like I work at a strip club." she whined.

He closed his mouth and drew in the mandibles. Swallowed once, twice - then blinked at her repeatedly.  
"A-at least it's a classy strip-club." he rasped.

Was it her or was he clutching the arm-rests a bit too tight? The fabric was straining under his gloved talons.

He cleared his throat and rose a brow at her feet. "The fuck are those?" 

"Sandals?"

"You gonna stab someone with them?"

"Not my fault stereotypes make it across the galaxy to bite me in the ass. Speaking of-" she half-turned to show her back. "- why did they have to make this so low, I feel like I'm not wearing anything."

She saw him fake-cough into his fist and look anywhere but at her back.   
Oh right, he was probably freaked out by her weird alien body. He'd always acted a little reserved whenever she was close to naked during poker nights too. 

He'd been a little strange during the 'shower-incident' as well, when he'd accidentally stumbled over her showering. Julie wasn't exactly a prude, she'd lived in close quarters with other people before but if she could have privacy, she would take it.

She remembered being intrigued by his strange body. She'd never seen a mostly naked turian before then (ridiculously colorful shorts aside). She'd won his clothes off him afterwards enough times that she was comfortable with how he was built. Thinner than she had first thought, but there was a wiry strength there, wide shoulders, tapered waist and narrow hips. Long, muscled limbs and a _lot_ of scars.

  
Julie shook her head to rid her mind of the memories. What was she doing again? 

Right. Time to go be halfway useful.

She composed herself and wobbled towards him. "Damn, I forgot how to walk in these things." she muttered and grabbed onto his offered elbow.

The usual warmth rolled off him in waves and Julie savored it.   
With the heels on, she almost came up to his chin. It was a little off-putting seeing those green eyes up-close when he faced her.   
He seemed a little startled himself as his brow-plates rose, the dark skin at the corners of his eyes crinkling a little in a turian smile. 

She'd never noticed it before, but he had striking markings and the most _beautiful_ eyes… 

"Lets go before the others get too ahead of us." he thankfully broke the moment and Julie blinked her strange thoughts away.

They left their suite, him helping support her at every stumble and her apologizing every time to his amusement.

"So, you ready?" he asked as they neared the special guest entrance. They would have to wait for their queue to be introduced.   
She could already see their group waiting in organized rows of two.   
Liveria was arm-in-arm with Alunia, much like her and Vex, although neither wore heels and the height difference between them was amusing.  
Fakra was smiling at something Tenn said behind them and Ianni and Hal looked absolutely adorable together with his navy hood matching the dark swirls of makeup Ianni wore.

"As ready as I'll ever be." she murmured back.

He patted the hand tucked under the crook of his elbow with his other hand.  
"Just remember to stay sharp and follow the instructions. You're smart, you can make it." he assured, surprising her.

"I thought you were against me going in the first place." she was drawn into his honest green gaze. There were thin blue striations radiating out now that she looked closer…

"I don't want you getting hurt, but you-"

He was interrupted by Alunia's sharp, wolfish whistle.  
"Looking hot, Doc!" the older asari leered at her. 

"You clean up nice, Julie." Liveria complimented, eyeing her waist and her hold on Vex's elbow in turn.

"Y-yes, you l-look really beautiful." Ianni stuttered as Hal hid a snigger behind his helmet.

"Red compliments complexion." Tenn smiled.

"Why thank you." Julie preened only a little. It felt like decades since she'd attended a party, even though she wouldn't stay long, the appreciation was kind of nice.

"And you all look absolutely dashing." she offered back. "Love the makeup, Ianni." 

The girl's purple blush got deeper and Julie was about to offer her some water from the nearby fountain but the announcement sounded and they went back into their neat rows.

Soon afterwards, a voice called each of their names and ranks aboard the Agilis as they entered the hall.   
Then they were slowly led around the room by the same aide who had coached them and introduced to some of the dignitaries and semi-important salarians present then finally deposited at their table near the dais the Dalatrasses and her people would occupy.

It was a little overwhelming to be surrounded by so many people again. For almost a year, she hadn't been in the same room with more than nine people at once.   
The giant hall was packed full of salarians - guests, catering personnel and guards.

Julie would have to wait around for the leaders to arrive and everything to settle when the first course was brought in before feigning sickness and darting for the ladies room. 

She sipped something bubbly and refreshingly cold from a flute handed to her as she fiddled with the fabric tied over her frumped up long chair.

"Quit that." Vex whispered next to her ear and she almost jumped out of her seat. They'd been seated in the order they had arrived, Liveria and Alunia closest to the Dalatrass. Then Tenn and Fakra in the middle, Hal and Ianni next and finally herself flanked by Vex at the end of the table.

"Wh-"

"Remember that thing Tenn said about his folks?" he pretended to be bored and rested his elbows on the table, gesturing faintly with a clawed hand downwards.

"Ooooh. Right. Wait, I got one too?"

"Probably, lets not mess it up, huh?"

"Sure. Yes. You're right. I'm good."

He was giving her a squirrelly sideways look that she did not like but was internally freaking out too much to call him out on it.

"How 'bout we get some air?" he twitched his head towards the balcony behind them. It was covered in the same type of thick glass as every other opening in the building, but perhaps a change of scenery would help.

Julie rose slowly from her chair, afraid of jostling the loaded gun under her.

_Jesus Christ_, they had guns here. She'd never liked guns much to begin with but had regarded learning to handle one as a necessary skill, especially after her parents were taken on Horizon. She had good aim and had practiced extensively whenever the possibility arose during the War. 

Now that she'd been shot she liked them even less.

They'd probably shoot her with the same type of pistol of they caught her.

Vex grabbed her hand and tucked it under his elbow again, then slowly led her towards the balcony/window.

As soon as they were close, she snatched her hand away and leaned on the tall railing. She wouldn't have to pretend to be sick, she could already feel the bile rising. Good thing her stomach was already empty.

She was distantly aware of him hovering behind her, distressed buzz fuzzing up her inner ear. 

She focused on her senses. The cold banister under her hands. The stupid shoes pinching her feet. The tendrils of hair tickling the back of her neck. The cool air of the air conditioning brushing against every bit of exposed skin.

The buzz coming from behind her, closer now.

The large, warm hand on her shoulder.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then repeated the process a couple of times untill her bpm was close to normal.

"I'm ready." she sounded more determined than she felt, and turned to face him.

Unexpected that seeing his crooked alien smile could make her feel that much better. Almost giddy.

The stress must have finally gotten to her, but she would handle it.

\-----------

  
The visiting Dalatrasses were finally shown to their seats and Linron followed soon after. 

The last one to arrive. The woman everyone had been waiting for.

The most important person in the room.

Julie didn't even try to keep the contempt out of her expression as Linron's guards escorted her to the high-backed chair in the middle of the dais, a throne really. Raised above all others. Ruler of her domain.

She held an unexpectedly short speech, thanking the other Dalatrasses for coming and bragging about her efforts to reclaim the lost colony with her band of alien allies.

The first course was served and Julie picked at the food. She would have to excuse herself soon.

The time came when Fakra stole a bottle of expensive brandy off a server and downed the whole thing, citing it was weak, much like the poor server himself.

Vex nodded at her when she met his eyes and she stumbled out of her seat. A few salarians threw her questioning glances, one of the guards even asked if she was okay and then led her to the bathroom.

If the heels were good for one thing, it was making her wobble convincingly.

She assured the man she'd be fine and pretended to almost vomit on his shiny boots to get him to leave.

When she was alone, she took off her sandals and sneaked out of the lavatory, darted down the corridor marked 'Personnel Only' and ran down the third maintenance access hall. After a few minutes of searching, she finally found and fumbled with the grate of the duct at the second to last junction. Just as Marika had instructed.

  
It was a tight fit, but she could make it. She hung the panel off a bolt and one of her heels for support. Hopefully no one would see anything and investigate.

Julie shimmied her way down the first section, taking turns as her omni-tool indicated.

She reached a portion she had to climb by pressing her hands and knees in front of her and using her back to prop herself up.  
She cursed the dress even more, she'd have bruises all over.

Eventually, she reached another junction and was horizontal again. Her side ached like a motherfucker from hauling herself into the even tighter duct.

After more turns she finally reached a grate and listened for a few minutes, it was positioned behind a large potted plant so she couldn't see anything.

She couldn't get a good angle to unscrew the bolts on this one so she just forced it open and scraped her hands in the process.

Finally free of the ducts, it took her a few dizzying moments to crawl out and right herself. She was dirty and greasy and bruised, her hair was a rat's nest and she probably smelled bad, but she'd made it in the corridor that led to Linron's suite. It wasn't like there was any going back now.

Julie entered the suite after passing her omni-tool over the red holographic display, running Hal's algorithm to crack the code. He'd been right, she couldn't reach any of them. She hoped they were ok.

Inside, the living area was vast, as high as three storeys with a transparent dome at the top, vines hanging off walls and plants so dense it almost looked like someone had taken a piece of the jungle and placed it in the center.  
She looked around and started going through the rooms, beginning with a huge bedroom with and equally large pool-area to the side. It had a miniature waterfall.

Julie repressed the sudden, maudlin urge to stand under it and made for the terminal at the other side of the room, her steps echoing strangely in the empty space.

She found a terminal and initiated Hal's program. The terminal lit up with a chime and she waited.

She waited… she waited… and she waited some more. After a few tense minutes, unintelligible code scrolled over the omni. Hal had optimized hers but it was a standard model and he'd said it would take a while to process everything even with the extra memory chit he'd taken from his own (he hadn't wanted to give her his tool since he'd probably need it if things got dicey downstairs).

It was a relief when the download bar finally appeared. 

  
"Who are you?" a small voice sounded behind her and Julie just about jumped out of her skin.  
"Are you ok?" it asked dubiously.

Julie turned and saw a diminutive salarian hiding behind the open doorway, half of their body hidden, wide liquid black eyes staring at her with an equal mix of distrust and concern.

The download was at 5%.   
Julie turned the holographic interface of her omni-tool off and faced what she assumed to be a salarian child.

She'd never seen salarian kids before. This one was about half her height and looked like someone had shrunk a adult salarian's body down but forgot to reduce the head. 

"H-hi!" Julie waved. She needed to stall, to keep the child from alerting the guards.

"My name is Julie, what's yours?" she asked after clearing her throat, voice sounding obnoxiously high-pitched even to herself.

"Zari." the little girl replied and inched further behind the wall.

"Don't be scared, I'm not here to hurt you." Julie said and sat crosslegged on the floor, arranging the skirt around her legs so she was halfway decent.

"Don't look like you can hurt anybody." the kid snickered.

Well, at least she wasn't screaming for help.

The salarian straightened and stood in the doorway. Her arms and legs looked a little too long for her body now that Julie could see her fully. 

"Did gramma send you to play? She said she had a surprise for me if I escaped fast this time. Said we had a bunch of aliens here - I've always wanted to meet other species! - but she always tells me to mind my studies and play with cousin Marika..." Zari trailed off as Julie attempted to assimilate everything. "Who's nice but kind of boring." the girl amended.

_Cousin_?!

Julie let out an unexpected giggle. She hoped she didn't sound insane.  
She was going to _strangle_ Marika for not mentioning this.

"You know Marika too? She makes really good food. I've met her a couple of times since I got here." she said after cussing the woman out in her head.

"Yeah! She made cookies for me yesterday! You guys like them too sweet though. Do you have any '_fla-our_'? She said we ran out and needed that or something called '_wheet_' to make more." she chattered in classic salarian rapid-speak, only slowing down to spell out the foreign words.

Julie's laugh was more genuine now. "Sorry, kid. We didn't really have much when we got here."

Zari nodded sagely, her little face turning sad. "Gramma said you were stranded for a long time. But that's ok, she's fixing your ship!" 

"And we're very grateful for that." Julie nodded.

Zari fiddled with her hands, eyes darting around the room. 

"What's wrong?"

"Do you… really have a _krogan_ with you? It hasn't attacked you?" she hesitated, cringing and almost whispering the word 'krogan' as if she expected one to charge in if she spoke too loud.

  
"Fakra saved our lives a couple of times actually." Julie said. Of course Linron had probably filled this kid's head with all sorts of bullshit.

"_Really_?" 

"Yeah, she's very brave and very strong, but also sucks at cards." she whispered the last part conspiratorially.

Zari hid a giggle and walked towards her further into the room, looking around in wonder.

"Gramma never lets me come in here, except for bath-time." her eyes were wide as saucers as she approached Julie and sat in front of her. She tried crossing her legs too but after some struggling (during which Julie surreptitiously looked at her omni - 68%, too slow) she settled on drawing her knees up and hugging her long, thin arms around them.

"Are you sure we should be in here?" the kid asked, half-suspicious, half-delighted this time.

"What 'gramma' doesn't know won't hurt her." Julie shrugged. Small acts of disobedience had always cheered her up when she was little. This girl could probably use some of that now. Especially if Linron had her 'escaping' out of her own room.

"What's it like outside?"

The innocent question made Julie frown.  
"You've never been outside?" 

The kid shook her head, little horns wobbling with the motion.  
"Gramma said it isn't safe."

"How old are you?"

"Almost six!" she chirped.

"You know… I actually have no idea how old that is for salarians. Are you… in school?" judging by her lever of diction, the kid might have been close to her teens if she were human.

She knew salarians would enter upper University by the time _they_ were in their teens (one of her Uni buddies had been 13 when he'd enrolled), but they were pretty much adults by then. 

"Oh, yes. Well, not _exactly_. I have tutors who teach me everything I would learn in a real school anyway. Is it true monsters from dark space invaded the rest of the galaxy?"

"Um. Yes?"

"Did they really turn people into _monsters_?"

Julie gulped, throat feeling suddenly very dry.   
"Yeah." she rasped.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked that... Don't be sad...?"

Julie blinked away the moisture in her eyes and smiled for the kid. "It's fine. Not your fault. Hey, could I bother you for some water?" she cleared her throat for emphasis.

"Oh! Of course!" Zari chirped and hastily scrambled up. She practically ran out and Julie used the chance to check her tool again.   
93%. Almost there.

She got up and rubbed her hands over her bare shoulders and arms. Sitting on the cold floor had made her feel chilly.

The bar jumped to 95% and Julie sighed. She was almost done. Stall a few more minutes then sneak out and hand Marika the memory chit and be done with this. Linron would be arrested and they could leave without worrying about some power-hungry salarian fucking up the galaxy further.

A glass shattered on the floor and Julie startled.   
Zari was standing in the doorway, shards of glass and a spreading puddle at her feet.  
"You're not here to play are you…" the child said while glancing between Julie's omni-tool and the terminal behind her.

"Zari, listen. This isn't what you think-"

"Liar!" she yelled and bolted.

Julie ran after her, her longer legs gave her the advantage, but damn, the kid was fast!

"HEL-" 

Julie caught Zari around the shoulders and slapped a hand over her mouth before she could finish her shout. The little salarian struggled in her grasp, surprisingly strong for such a little thing. They were just in front of the miniature jungle, close to the entrance, but not close enough for it to open automatically 

"Shh, please. Please be quiet. This wasn't supposed to-"

The airlock cycled open and two armored guards stepped in, guns drawn and pointed at them.

"FREEZE!" the one on the right yelled.

"Release the Heir!" the other ordered.

"Wait, don't shoot!" Julie pleaded.

While she was distracted, Zari took the opportunity and bit Julie's hand. _Hard_.

The human yelped and almost lost her grip.

"Dammit, I can't get a good bead on her." Left-side muttered. "Call for ba-"   
He was suddenly silenced by an electric jolt and fell twitching to the ground. Right-side had used an overload on his buddy.  
Julie wondered if he was dead.

Zari had stopped struggling and was trembling in her arms.

"Good work, Operative Moore. Now, you can hand me the data and the Heir." the remaining guard held a hand out.

Julie felt something small and wet hit her hand, it stung the little cuts on her hands. Zari was quietly weeping.

"Who are you?" she asked instead and hugged the child closed to her side, trying to get her behind. 

"An ally. We don't have time, hurry."

Zari seemed to have sensed the change in her, because she slipped behind Julie with only a whimper.

"Why do you need the kid?" 

The salarian in front of her paused as he considered them. Then he pointed his gun at Julie again.

"Hand them over. Now."

  
"Wait! Ok! No need to get shooty!"   
_Shooty_?   
She was too scared to care how stupid that sounded anyway.

Julie looked behind at Zari who was shaking her head, fat tears slipping down her cheeks.

Slowly, she walked forward, still keeping Zari behind her, and took the memory chit out of her omni.

"See, I'm giving you what you want, just put the gun down."

The salarian lowered his pistol but still kept it just in front of him.

When she was close enough to reach, Julie held out the chit.  
The salarian made to grab it, but she tossed it over his head.

In the split second he was distracted by the flying chit, Julie burst forward and grabbed his hand, trying to knock the gun aside.   
"RUN!" 

Zari bolted for the miniature jungle and dissappeared in the foliage just as the guard shot randomly and shattered something behind her. He quickly overpowered her and backhanded Julie across the face.   
She fell in a heap and slid a little on the smooth floor with the force of the hit, already feeling her cheek start to swell.

"Stupid human." the guard muttered and bent to retrieve the chit as Julie was struggling to pick herself up. She was having trouble seeing straight.

Julie backed away from him on all fours, the salt of her tears stinging what felt like a split lip.

"Now you die anyway." he rose and started aiming his gun. 

Then his visor shattered with a loud bang and he fell like a puppet with it's strings cut.

Dalatrass Linron stood behind him in the doorway, breathing heavily, a small pistol pointed at where his head used to be.

"Covert operations aren't your strong suit." she said as she stepped into her suite.  
"You saved my Heir from extremists. It is the _only_ reason you are still breathing." 

Julie was cradling her cheek, she couldn't quite understand everything. The world had a strange, watery quality to it.   
Probably shock then.

  
"Zari!" the Dalarass called, sounding worried. 

"Gramma?" the little voice called back from the foliage.

The was some rustling and she jumped out, running to the Dalatrass full-speed. The two hugged each other. It was the first time Julie had ever seen Linron smiling.

"Come, we must leave." Linron turned the child away from the gruesome scene before she could spot the green blood congealing on the floor.

Julie had managed to get back to her feet and was leaning against a wall for support. Her legs weren't quite working yet.

"No, you won't." a figure in white armor said.

\-----------

  
{Meanwhile, at the party}

\------------

Moore stumbled out of her seat. He reflexively held out a hand to stop he from falling before remembering this was an act.

Vex watched her trail away out of the corner of his eye, a concerned buzz rumbling in him at the salarian helping her.  
He calmed after he saw the man power-walking away from where he knew the washroom was hidden.

Sylcus caught his eye and he nodded, then he watched as the Captain pretended to calm Fakra down and grab her three more bottles of expensive brandy.

Linron was sneering down at them like she'd smelled something bad. Maybe she didn't like Fakra's natural musk.  
Krogan rarely smelled nice but after months on the same station and then shipping with the others, he'd mostly gotten used to everyone's funk.

The wide baths in their rooms had been nice anyway. 

He wasted some time playing with the Horosk in his fancy glass. It was from the same bottle he'd salvaged back on the Rigidium.   
High-grade. Quite good after one taste. But he couldn't indulge. Even smelling it made him feel a little queasy. Moore was probably getting lost in the ducts and suffocating to death as they sat there and pretended to enjoy Linron's wank of a party.

He shook his head and looked around the room. He had a job to do. No time to worry about something he couldn't control.

He'd already spotted all the guards around the room. All the exits. All the windows they couldn't make use of.  
But he did it again, just to be sure.

The guests were tense and kept glancing around too. Either they were in on the plan or they expected trouble. Couldn't do anything about them either, so he moved on.

He was increasingly aware of the seconds ticking by. His foot was twitching under the table and he consciously had to stop himself from fidgeting.

He'd never freaked out at a stake-out before.

This wasn't even the first party they'd crashed. He and his Cabal had infiltrated drug deals, armament exchanges, once a birthday party for a merc-lord on Omega, and gotten out fine with 100% mission success.

Then again, back then all of his old friends had been alive and they'd all been highly trained operatives with a clear plan and support from local authorities (or in Omega's case, Aria had told them she wouldn't interfere as long as they didn't muck up her bottom line _or_ her dance floor).

Now, it was only Sylcus and him left. Their colleagues were a hodge-podge of random people they'd just stumbled upon.

A few of them didn't even have any kind of training.  
Ianni might have been a powerful biotic, but she'd be in the way if she tried to fire a gun.   
Hal was a skilled engineer, but he was still a kid.

Alunia knew her shit and worked well with him in a team, but she'd been hurt and couldn't wield her biotics as well as she used to anymore.

Fakra was tough and he was certain she could fight but he wasn't sure how solid she'd be in a team.

He didn't even know what _branch_ of black-ops Tenn had been in.

And Moore, while resourceful, was still a civilian. A foreign concept for turians but he'd seen enough in other species to know they were best kept far away from any action.

He wished Tony were here. The Alliance was very different to the Hierarchy, but they trained their people well. 

  
He occupied his time by planning for possible attack patterns. That Marika salarian, in her endless wisdom, hadn't seen fit to tell them how she wanted to play this, so they were left anxiously watching for anything out of the ordinary.

Halfway through the second course (a delicious xemna steak he couldn't enjoy) Linron looked at her omni.

He felt his gizzard sink and signaled Sylcus. She had seen it too.

He hope Julie wasn't in trouble.

Lu whispered something to the Captain, looking worried. She must have been thinking the same thing.

Linron continued her meal, taking small bites of whatever was on her plate while glancing at her tool every now and again. She didn't look concerned, even smiled at one point.

Once all their half-eaten plates were taken away and the servers cleared everyone else's tables, including Linron's, the Dalatrass rose and addressed the room which had gone eerily silent the moment she first shifted in her throne.

"Esteemed guests. Please enjoy a short pause for music while I attend to some unexpected matters." she smiled again, almost… _fondly_.   
It freaked Vex out and his heart began beating faster. This wasn't how it should have gone. Where was Marika? Where was Julie?!

Fakra had bent the fork in her hand, she was getting ready to do something violent judging by the grin on her face.

Then the double doors banged open and a gaggle of armed salarians stormed the room.

Vex reached under his seat and grabbed the pistol. He saw the others do the same as he bent a little to get the one under Moore's.

A high, clear voice ordered the room at large "**Don't move**!"

The slim figure, dressed in white armor continued.  
"Dalatrass Linron, the Salarian Union has deemed you unfit of your station for gross misconduct, breaking the rules of fair trade and negotiation under neutral terms, impeding galaxy wellness and other outstanding charges. You are under arre-"

The Dalatrass burst out laughing. "Marika, is that you under there?" she laughed some more.  
"Kill them." she ordered and ducked under the high table.

Everyone sprang into action, Ianni held a protective barrier in front of them up to waist level. Their group hid behind it, except for Tenn who had disappeared and Fakra who was charging up the dais.

Sylcus followed her and shot the guards trying to kill her, Throwing the ones behind cover.

The dinner hall was in chaos too, the guards and Marika's people were killing each other.   
The figure in white armor was sprinting for the dais too and Vex used his biotics to Pull some of the people shooting her away while Hal Overloaded others.

Tenn sometimes randomly appeared in various places around the room, taking out guards every time and fading away immediately after.  
Ah, so he'd been an Infiltrator. Figures.

Alunia was quietly grunting and Pulling some of the bystanders out of the way. The other Dalatrasses also had a protective barrier around them.

Vex shot a couple of more guards and turned his attention back to his Caballim.

Sylcus had Charged to the other side of the room, stalling Linron who had somehow darted behind a pillar with a guard. The Dalatrass' robes were barely visible shifting back and forth while the guard was keeping Sylcus busy. 

It had only taken two seconds but Fakra was already bogged down by guards who had bodily jumped on her and were trying to stop her by sheer numbers. 

He helped Fakra get free first with a burst of biotic energy that blew most of the poor fucks on top away. She could handle the rest.

Sylcus got shot in the shoulder by a stray bullet and fell out of cover.   
Vex shot Linron's guard through the visor when the idot popped his head out to finish Sylcus off and then helped her behind cover again.

A white streak passed them and Marika also disappeared behind the pillar.

"Go!" Sylcus ordered.   
Vex hesitated only for a second and looked for Lu. She felt his gaze and nodded, she'd take care of the Captain.  
"_On the double_, _Anguisan_!"

He bolted without another word. 

There was a trap door where Linron or Marika should have been. He skidded to a stop before falling in it, then jumped in without a second thought.


	17. Who wants to live forever

"No, you won't." a figure in white armor said.

Julie slid back down and made herself small behind a potted plant.

"Gramma?" Zari asked from behind Linron.

"She's not your grandmother." the figure muttered.

"Stay behind me, child." 

"Oh, drop the act. You know I won't hurt her."

"So you're the one who was scheming behind my back. _Marika_, my own flesh and blood…" Linron shook her head slowly and let Zari inch out, although she was still careful to keep the child's face buried in her robes.

"Is that really Marika?" the kid pleaded with teary eyes staring up at the Dalatrass.

"I'm sorry, my dear. I should have know better than to trust a coward and a traitor." 

  
"Ugh, will you stop? You're the traitor. You wanted to abandon our allies and pick a fight with the krogan again. You've killed the other Dalatrasses with poison, like a coward. You're a power-hungry hag at the end of her rope. Put your hands up and get away from Zari!" Marika shouted the last part and aimed her pistol squarely at Linron's head.

"And you have proof of this?"

"Julie?" Marika asked.

"Uh. I threw the data chit… should be… somewhere behind you?" she replied nasally. Her nose felt stuffy. Probably with blood. The thought of having a crooked nose from this bothered her (provided she survived). It didn't _feel_ broken though...

Marika made an impatient sound. "Could you look for it?"

"Will she shoot me?"

"I've got her."

Julie slipped from behind cover, her left eye was swollen shut by now and the whole left side of her face felt like it was on fire, pulsating with pain. Her lip had stopped bleeding.

Linron laughed like a cartoon villain and Julie paused, halfway between her flowerpot and Marika.

"You really think I hid anything of value on my personal terminal?"

"Yes. You're too paranoid to keep it anywhere else." Marika said.

"Go ahead. Take a look at it then." Linron's smug face made Julie want to punch it. She tiptoed to the dead guard, avoiding the shiny green blood, and looked around.

The chit was crushed to pieces right next to his outstretched hand.   
Linron or Marika must have stepped on it in their haste. Or maybe Linron had seen it when she was coming in and crushed it while Julie's head was too busy ringing to notice such small details. Hard to tell.

"Uh." 

"What now?" Marika demanded.

"I don't think you can use it anymore."

Marika mumbled something obscene under her helmet.

"All this effort, for nothing!" Linron laughed again.

"I'll take that terminal apart _myself_." Marika growled.

"I think not." Linron shook her wrist and something went boom in her bedroom. Good thing it hadn't exploded while she, Julie, was standing right in front of it…

Julie was too tired to really register how fucked they probably were, she just slinked away and cowered behind her potted plant again while the two salarians were staring each other down.

"You've been outplayed, Marika. Time to fold, maybe get away with your life." Linron chuckled again. "And to think, the reason your plans were foiled was because I was alerted that Zari went into my bedroom without permission." 

  
"How did-" Zari started. She'd unexpectedly pushed away from Linron's robes and froze as she saw the dead guards.

"I'm sorry you had to see this so soon, my Heir." Linron lamented. Julie almost believed her. "But perhaps it is for the best. If you are to rule in my place one day, you must learn the price of carelessness. And betrayal." she murmured to the shocked child.

"Dammit!" Marika swore again and lowered her gun then took off her helmet while Linron was talking down at the kid.  
"Don't look Zari..." but it was too late.  
"Come here, sweety, come to ma - Marika." she held her free hand out, pistol still at the ready in the other, but kept low.

The spell broke and the kid was glancing nervously between the the two women.

"No. She's staying with me." Linron said and gripped Zari firmly by the shoulder, the pistol she'd kept behind her robes rising towards the kid.

"Gramma…?" the girl whined, still looking between her relatives, unaware of the gun pointing at her head.

"Sit still child. We'll both get out. Your dear _cousin_ wouldn't want you hurt, now would she?" Linron's thin lips curled in a sneer.

Marika took a deep breath through her nose. Raised her pistol, aiming for Linron's head again.

"Really?" the older woman scowled. "I thought you didn't want her educated on the finer details of murder _yet_."   
"It's over, Marika. You were never the right breed for this kind of job anyway. Go back to your kitchen and recipes, you're better off there." 

  
Julie was having trouble keeping up with the conversation, she was so tired and sore and her head felt close to splitting. She couldn't pass out yet though, there was still danger.  
It was difficult keeping her breathing under control.

Suddenly, a biotic ball of energy hit Linron in the side just as she started backing away. Both her and the child were thrown to the side.

Julie found some last vestiges of strength and ran for the kid, gathering her up off the floor and backing away as Vex entered the room, gun at the ready.

Shots were fired as Julie scrambled for cover, Zari weeping again in her arms. One zipped scary close to her head and shattered the pot she'd been hiding behind. (Stupid to hide there, now that she thought about it.)  
She changed course and headed for Linron's bedroom.

She must have stepped in the broken glass because next thing she knew, she slipped and fell on her ass with a yelp, taking Zari with her. Some part of her was aware enough to drag them both behind the wall.

There was a short scuffle followed by a cry of pain, and another shot rang out. Then there was silence.

Something metallic dropped, soon followed by a heavy thud that sounded suspiciously like a body hitting the floor.

Julie had been rocking back and forth, covering Zari with her own body curled around her while the child fisted the fabric of her skirts and clung to her.   
She clutched the kid tighter when she heard footsteps coming up behind.

The deep rumble of concern was immediately familiar and Julie released her grip reflexively as a large, warm gloved hand settled hesitantly on her bare back.

She turned, child in her lap and all and threw her arms around the figure kneeling beside them, almost tipping him over.

Vex caught himself and wrapped his longs arms around her. His armor was cold and rigid. Unforgiving of her delicate skin, but Julie didn't care. She was already crying and trembling like a leaf. It felt like she'd break apart if he let go.

With her good eye, she caught a glimpse of a white armored figure standing above a heap of dark fabric. The tears were blurring the details too much to make out who was who. 

\--------------

  
Vex held onto Julie's slim, shaking frame.

  
He'd gotten lost in the winding corridors, probably some escape route built into the structure long ago.

When he'd jumped in he'd landed badly and almost sprained an ankle, hadn't expected the drop to be so long.   
Salarians were mostly cartilage so the Dalatrass and Marika had a pretty solid head start on him and he'd lost the white streak of Marika's armor while trying to get up.

He'd tried to catch up but had hit a dead end and had to retrace his steps.   
Then he'd remembered what Hal had said about Linron's suite probably having a signal blocker and Moore's lack of contact and followed the shrinking signal of his omni (backtracking from several dead ends) until he finally found some stairs.  
Linron's suite was on the upper lever so he climbed whenever he could.

Then he'd heard three successive gunshots and rushed forward, almost got lost again and followed the fourth bang until he finally stumbled over an open secret door in the wall. 

The hallway was empty when he exited and he heard voices coming from further ahead.

He crept along the wall, careful not to make too much noise. He could hear Marika and Linron's voices arguing and… was that a kid?  
He took a peek during Linron's gloating and concentrated.

He didn't want to hurt the kid but he couldn't see Moore anywhere, which made his insides lurch uncomfortably, and it sounded like Marika was failing so he took a deep breath and launched a focused ball of energy with a gentle curve. 

It took Linron off her feet and a streak of red and olive immediately darted for the kid sprawled all over the floor.

_Thank the Spirits…_

His relief had been short lived as Linron got up and seemed to aim for the human's back. Vex sent another weak pulse of energy, unfocused and raw, that jolted Linron enough to miss.

Marika tried to tackle the older woman and they exchanged blows. Vex couldn't risk a shot with them so close together.  
Then another shot rang out and Marika let her pistol and Linron's body slump to the floor with a loud smack. 

The dead woman didn't move and the living one remained frozen.

Vex holstered his dinky pistol and took cautious steps toward Moore. The kid was sniffling pitifully and Julie was rocking them both back and forth.

She'd looked so small.

He'd knelt next to her almost in a trance.

He'd dealt with victims of violent crimes, rescued slaves and innocent bystanders before (it was rare to find live ones in his line of work, but not unheard of). Usually he just stood a respectful distance away and let the emergency personnel, their ship doctor or other family members collect them, sometimes he'd find a blanket or some water to give them but nothing more.

He wasn't uncaring, he just couldn't get too involved in other people's drama if he wanted to keep his head on straight.

This time his hand moved all on it's own. Careful and hesitant as he'd never been before, he placed it on her trembling back.   
He could see the bumps of her spine and her ribs heaving under her skin. 

Such a vulnerable build. 

Then she hugged him, dragging the salarian child between them and wept on his shoulder.   
He almost fell back with his bum ankle, but found his balance soon and let himself hold her.

He was pretty sure his heart was breaking with every sob but somehow, it felt right to hold onto her like this.

If she was to be hurt, if she was to cry, if he couldn't stop any of these awful things from happening to her, then it felt right that he should at least be able to offer comfort.

As long as he could find her, alive and whole, and hold her at the end, he'd be satisfied with that.

The problem was that he didn't want to let go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooooo, it's been a while.
> 
> Yet again, life's been busy and I fell into some sort of creative pithole funk.  
I'm hoping the holidays will give me enough time to relax and get back to finishing this thing.
> 
> Anyway, here's a short one full of angst.  
Hope you enjoyed!


	18. No plan

The takeover unfolded with only a few extra token acts of violence from the remaining foolish young guards with more loyalty than sense.

With Linron dead and the Heir adopted by Marika (who was a previously abandoned Heir - Julie wasn't even surprised anymore) through the old woman's own will, there was no one left to contest the line of succession.   
Marika, being the Heir's guardian and the only living relative of Linron's present on the planet, except for the Heir herself, would assume the mantle of Iterim Dalatrass untill Zari grew up enough to take over the responsibility.

Julie hadn't even known Marika was part of the Linron lineage, she couldn't imagine two people more removed from each other.

Zari had been ushered away a few hours after everything had happened. The poor kid was cried out and she'd refused to let Julie go at first until she saw Marika approaching and immediately went with some of her other caretakers.

Hal attempted to recover parts of the data Julie had stolen - turned out the casing was what had crumbled and the insides had been salvageable.   
Linron had lied through her teeth about not keeping records on her personal terminal.

Luck was on Marika's side. While a big chunk of the information had been lost, Hal had extracted sufficient data that her claims were backed enough to keep her position relatively secure. 

Except for a few scrapes on everyone, a new scar over Fakra's snout, Liveria nursing a healing shoulder wound, Vex's sprained ankle and Julie's many bruises, cuts and busted face (Ianni had gasped and fussed more than ever when she'd seen her) and the gash on the sole of her left foot; the crew was relatively unharmed.   
Tenn didn't even have a scratch on him and Hal thankfully didn't suffer any major suit ruptures. 

The salarians had still upped the security on their suite. None of them were allowed beyond the level they lived in and were only taken outside once a day for two hours under heavy guard.  
All their armor had also been confiscated and would be returned when they would board the Agilis.

Julie suspected the time outdoors was Marika's doing, but never spoke of it. It was a sore subject for everyone.

Her recovery went fairly quickly, some swelling remained, she had a black eye and a healing split lip that got fixed pretty quick with medigel - which left a faint scar over her upper lip.  
She'd also cut the inside of her cheek on her own teeth and that took a little longer to heal but otherwise she was as good as could be expected. Her nose had escaped the ordeal intact as well.

Sometimes she had night terrors that woke her up panting and sweating.   
All the memories from the War, the desolation on Horizon and what she imagined had happened to her parents, getting kidnapped and shot at and generally slapped around had finally caught up to her.

She decided to talk to Alunia privately after she woke everyone up while screaming because of one particularly nasty nightmare. It was an older one where she was caught in one of those strange organic pods and melted slowly and painfully into paste.

The noise even brought the guards outside their doors rushing in, panicked that someone had attacked from the outside.

  
After calming herself and her friends down enough and getting past the embarrassment of being caught, Alunia had stayed behind and confessed her own nightmares.

The asari's were different, though her terrors were of family too so she understood the fear.  
It was what made Julie let herself talk about a few things.   
Not all, she couldn't share the pain of being sent her parents things shortly after hearing half of Horizon's population had been abducted or anything about Tony, or all the other people she had loved and lost. But she could share some of the left-overs from the War, the kidnapping on the resupply station and bits and pieces about her guilt over Zari.

Unsurprisingly. It helped.

She would have to thank Vex eventually, but every time the two of them were even close to being alone she'd chicken out and find something else to do.

His presence was still a source of unexpected comfort and that freaked her out.   
She'd never been the clingy type, usually she handled her shit alone, but obviously that only worked so far.

Every time he was nearby, her heart would do a little flip. 

If he smiled at her?  
Flip. 

If he did something innocuous but still nice, like pass her the salt?   
Flip.

If his hand brushed against her (usually a friendly shoulder pat)?   
Huge flip.

Sometimes her heart would throb if she just heard him laughing.

When he talked to her she'd get lost in the deep rumble of his voice and she'd miss half of what he was actually saying. She probably seemed rude when she went 'Huh?' after every few sentences and he was lookin at her expectantly for some sort of reply.

It was _ridiculous_.

She was vehemently denying anything of the attraction variety happening every time she was reminded of her own stupid little… obsession. Or whatever it was.

  
It took her the better part of a week to even admit to herself that she might have had a smidge of a crush.

  
Their ship was almost ready and she dreaded living on it again. At least here they had big rooms and private bathrooms.   
What would she do or say if they were ever alone in some part of the ship, or God-forbid, he stumbled over her showering again, or vise-versa? She'd probably spontaneously combust.

The idea of staying on Sur'Kesh flashed through her mind exactly once before she firmly discarded it. 

She'd just have to suck it up. Ride the crush out. Get back to normal.  
Must have been some weird, stress and trauma induced reaction anyway. He'd just happened to be there at her most vulnerable.

When she tried to imagine how she'd react if any of the others had shown up in his stead, the argument became less convincing so she stopped trying.

  
Telling him was out of the question. She'd ruin this fragile friendship they had for starters and she was fairly certain interspecies romance was just about at the bottom of his to-do list with everything going on.   
In fact, it should be on the bottom of hers too.

Actually, would it even work? How exactly could they even-

_No._   
_Bad Julie. _

She just needed to stop thinking long enough to sort herself out. Keep her mouth shut and her sighs minimal and she'd be fine.

\-------------------------

Her plan failed spectacularly.  
The only thing that had changed was that she could hide her feelings a little better.

  
Liveria had decided to still keep their end of the bargain and rescue the colony if they could.

They were on their way towards Raekan on the newly fixed Agilis, carrying enough high grade rations, solid metal cans of preserved food, and the genome to clone vats of dextro and levo meat (if they had the raw materials) to last them all the way to Earth and back. The salarians had even thrown in a cross-species blood synthetizer and extra medi-gel along with the improved drive-core and the newly added QEC room (which was the old CommRoom but a little bigger and fancier) not to mention fixing and redoing all of Vex and Hal's patchwork.

  
Marika had shown up to say goodbye when they were boarding but Julie was still angry at her lies and deceit, so she'd only nodded at the new Dalatrass and wished her luck. She would need it after all.  
Julie felt a little sorry at the young salarian's desolate expression.   
Marika would be short on friends and with the third faction, the 'extremists' Linron had mentioned, whoose agent had almost killed Julie still unidentified, she risked her life just by being outside. 

Vex had stuck close by the whole time, staring down the guards like they'd try to stop them.

Tenn had lingered with some of his family. Apparently one of his younger sisters, who was leader of the clan now, had wanted to talk to him.   
Julie hoped she wouldn't ask for anything weird.

  
She never got to speak to Zari again. She would have liked to say goodbye but all things considered, maybe it was better for the girl to stay away from them.

\-------------------------

  
Leaving atmo felt like freedom.  
Julie breathed in the fresh ship smell, someone had added some sort of subtle fruity perfume to their air-filters. The slightly astringent smell reminded her of her old dorm-room post spring cleaning.

After a short update to Victus, Liveria had ordered another round of 'de-bugging', just in case the salarians had planted more monitoring devices. Marika had assured the team everything was clean, but it never hurt to check.   
Hal and Vex would be busy for a week.

Julie envied their work a little, her role was now mostly just ship maintenance. Vital, since they depended on the Agilis to keep them alive, but dull.

It was late in the work-cycle by the time she was done scrubbing the deck in the cargo-bay. Her stomach rumbled so loudly she swore she could hear the sound echo in the large space (their new shuttle, ingeniously dubbed 'Brick 2', was elevated to clear the deck for cleaning).

Julie packed up and climbed the stairs to the crew-deck to clean up, then turned towards the mess and her mouth immediately started watering. 

She hadn't noticed the smell of cooking food with her nose clogged by cleaning agent fumes until now. 

She was surprised to see Vex standing in front of the small stove, minding several pots and a skillet.  
He was dressed in loose, worn military fatigues, sleeves rolled up and gloves carefully set aside on the counter behind him. The salarians had upgraded their textile synthetizer too but it seemed he preferred his old, comfortable clothes.

When he turned to the refrigeration unit to take something out she could see he was also wearing an apron.

He heard her snickering and turned, making her laugh outright.

"Where did you even get a Blasto apron?" 

"Jealous?"

"Y'know, I kinda am." she said while wiping a tear away.

"The design's under 'Miscellanous Accessories' in the synthetizer. I think someone put it there as a joke." he added, the amused trill of subvocals making his voice hitch pleasantly, almost melodiously.  
"So, of course, I had to have it."

"Huh, we should thank them for the laugh." Julie tried to tame the little flip in her chest and distracted herself by looking behind him at the stove.   
"I didn't know you could cook."

"Heh, if you'd lived with Lu for more than a week as a kid you'd learn too. That asari is a disaster in the kitchen." he shook his head, mandibles spreading in a turian smile as he sprinkled something over the sizzling meat in the skillet.

"Is this all dextro food? Smells so good…" her mouth was basically a lake by now, she had to swallow before every sentence.

"These two are." he pointed to the skillet and small pot on the right side. "Nothing as fancy as a Citadel-famous chef can make, but it's edible."

Julie blinked in surprise at the other two larger pots and lifted the lid off the closest one. Some sort of stew was bubbling happily away.

"You cooked for us too? That's… really thoughtful."

She felt a low rumble roll off him and he turned the four pieces of meat in the skillet one by one with a two-pronged fork that would be huge in her hands but seemed dainty in his.   
She also noticed his talons were short and rounded now. They still made little clacking noises when he shifted his grip.

"Did you grow up with her?" Julie hedged, uncertain if she was prying but too curious to stop herself.

"Partially." he answered curtly.  
"She was always around but we lived together for almost … a year, I think? Just before bootcamp." Vex added after a small pause and a shifty look down at her.

"So you were… what, fourteen?" Julie asked, sucking on her teeth while her brain tried to remember turian military customs (or, just customs were enough. She'd never heard of a turian who hadn't served in some capacity).

"Something like that." he nodded with a sharp grimace.

"Sorry, I didn't know that was a sore spot..." she half-turned to him raised her hands in a placating gesture.

"It's fine. Not really… sore..." he patted the air in front of her, almost as if he wanted to grab her flailing hands. "My, uh. My mother had died and in stead of going into foster-care for another year, Alunia got custody. Mom made sure I wouldn't end up with some strangers." he shrugged and turned the heat off the stove.

Julie opened the cupboards and set plates on the small counter. She didn't think asking about a father or spouse was a good idea.  
"I'm sorry. I lost my parents a while back. I can't imagine how much worse it is as a kid."

Vex gave a half-hearted sigh and started piling food on the plates.  
"I imagine it's shitty no matter what age you are. But we knew it was coming for a long time. She had a terminal illness related to eezo exposure - malignant growth on the lymph nodes. We'd thought ourselves lucky when I didn't manifest biotic potential and all the tests came back clean. Turns out it just needed more time to develop." he shrugged again, turning to her to get Hal's purifier from the top shelf she'd been struggling to reach.   
The heat of him at her back made her squeak against her will.

Julie slid sideways and straightened her tunic.  
"I'm sorry, that's… pretty awful to live with."

He hummed with both sets of vocals, the unheard vibrations feeling melancholic to her.  
"Can I ask… about yours?" he swallowed thickly, pouring the contents of the small pot into the purifier's tank.

Julie pulled at her sleeves, stretching the fabric over her knuckles.  
"Remember when human colonies started going dark? God, if feels like forever ago…"

"Shit… sorry, I -"

"Don't worry about it." Julie shook her head and hid behind her hair, it was getting long. She should probably cut it.  
"They, uh, they weren't with the half who were saved on Horizon." she couldn't bring herself to talk about what had actually happened to them. Just what hadn't. 

Vex abandoned the purifier, his hand had been hovering over the ON button while she'd been talking.  
He took a step closer to her, not enough that she felt crowded but just enough that she felt less alone.

"I, hm… heard rumors Commander Shepard handled that. I'm sorry she got there too late, Julie." his voice was tender and a warm hum vibrated up her arm where he was now lightly touching her elbow.

"… I don't know what to say about that. If they'd survived the first time, they'd probably have ended up worse on Sanctuary…"

She looked up just in time to see his worried expression shift to horrified.  
"R-right. That-"

"I probably would have gone with them…" Julie realized. Images of husks and monsters and tubes penetrating skin flashed through her mind's eye unbidden. Her nightmares encroaching on her waking hours.

His grip slid up to her shoulder, leaving unseen goosebumps in it's wake. The motion brought Julie out of the dark thoughts she'd been spiraling down in.

"There's no point in what-ifs. The galaxy is what it is and we should focus on the now." he said, gripping her shoulder a little harder, though not enough to hurt, as if he was willing her back to reality.

Julie blinked away the wet and nodded. His green eyes were kind but determined when she looked up. 

She didn't know how long they just sat there and stared at each other. Him bending a little and her almost leaning on her tiptoes.

  
The purifier turned on with harsh buzz and made them practically jump apart.

Julie swore under her breath and Vex said something obscene loudly.

Hal was behind Vex, palm pressing the ON button of the obnoxious purifier. He must have come out of the gun battery, it was the only place without a direct line of sight from where they'd been talking.

"Oh, hello!" the quarian chirped. "Sorry, the food was getting cold…" he mumbled while grabbing a clean, refillable tube and fitting the nozzle into the purifier's output. It started buzzing again, quieter this time, while it filled the tube.

Julie shook out her hands and Vex massaged his plated forehead. 

"Food!" Alunia shouted from the elevator and ran (hobbled) to the table. Liveria was chuckling behind her.  
Fakra climbed the stairs next and Tenn was somehow already seated and eating.

\-------------------------

The best part about being back on his ship was that he could take a shower without feeling like he was being watched (he'd triple-checked). That, and the fact that it was, well, _his_ ship. Nothing like home, after all.

The not-so-good part? He was back almost to square one with the Moore situation.  
He hadn't had any more embarrassing dreams (which he'd concluded were entirely due to a lack of contact with his own kind, or any other remotely available women and not some weird, suddenly developed xenophilia).  
At least on Sur'Kesh he'd had the benefit of his own room. He sort of had that here too in the engineering subdeck, but it didn't have a door.  
Doors were nice.

It was also impossible to avoid talking to her.   
Not that he was trying all that hard, after the depressing parent-talk (he'd blocked out Hal's interruption), he and Moore would regularly meet up and make dinner together.  
Mostly him would do the cooking, but she handed him stuff, so it counted.

Now, all that was fine and pleasant, except that he liked those talks a little too much.   
Against his better judgement, he was catching feelings and he couldn't afford that.   
It would have been better if what he wanted was only physical, _that_ he could fix. 

He'd never had a serious emotional attachment with anyone else before. Barely had the start of something after a couple of tumbles in the sack and getting to know someone afterward. But he'd been sent on a long mission and she'd found someone else and while he didn't begrudge her happiness, he'd never really tried again after that.

It freaked him out how easily Moore had wormed her way under his plates.

He didn't think letting some stress off with her would solve his problem now. For one, her culture wasn't anything like his and he was already too fond of her for no-strings attatched.

Eventually they'd end up back on Earth and he'd have to let her go where she belonged. He could see how being unable to help their team more grated on her. She was wasted on a warship either way.

And the more time he spent with her, the less he wanted to finish their mission. It wasn't a good outlook for a soldier to have. He of all people should know this best.

Yet, like a fool, he didn't stop sharing and asking about small personal matters. Nothing as deep or serious as death or loss, but smaller things they missed about life before. Little passions and habits that were now abandoned out of necessity.  
Favorite foods or shows or books.   
Some happy childhood memories or amusing anecdotes. He'd almost busted his gizzard laughing at her tale about a cranky old salarian professor sitting beside his chair in anger after shouting at the class and falling back, limbs akimbo. The punchline was how none of the students could laugh outright for over an hour but each would shudder or stifle a giggle every few minutes, prompting the others to suffer similarly.

Sometimes, when the mood was bright, they even dared to hope for the future.

They shared jokes and teasing and he thought they'd sort-of-flirted a couple of times too - or at least, _he_ had. Hadn't even been aware of it untill it left his mouth and she reciprocated with something equally vague then they'd both laughed it off.

At one point, he'd convinced himself to just go up and get it off his keelbone but it turned out to be a bad time. Moore had just finished a short meeting with Lu.   
He was glad she took his advice, but they both looked like they'd just finished crying and his initiative got wiped away like dust.

\-------------------------

About a cycle out from Raekan, Julie was being particularly pensive while she helped set the table.   
He watched her out of the corner of his eye but didn't say anything. She'd share if she wanted to.

"... what do you think's going on down there?" Moore finally asked from behind him. 

Vex shook his head and drew his mandibles close.  
"We'll have to look and see."

He heard footsteps coming up and the sound of a soft sigh closer than he expected. When he turned to grab a ladle he could see her leaning over the counter, elbows propped on it and resting her flexible face in her fists. The cheeks were shifted up and changed the shape of her eyes comically.

He huffed a small laugh and she frowned at him. It made him laugh harder.

"Sorry, you face is just so…" Vex trailed off, trying to find the right word. "_squishy_." 

"Not my fault you've got rocks for a face." she grumbled, puffing out and making the flesh of her face move even more weirdly. He didn't even bother correcting her, he was too busy keeping his chortle in check.

"My aunts used to pinch my cheeks whenever we visited, it was so annoying. They didn't quit even when I was in high-school!" she flapped her arms around and made a pinching motion with her thumb and curled forefinger.

Vex wiped his hands and turned fully, leaning down so they were level.  
Her skin flushed with a pleasantly pink tint and he mimicked her hand motion, then lightly gripped the skin of her cheek, careful of his talons - however blunt they were.

It was softer than anything he'd ever felt before. 

Asari skin was more rigid than this, spread more taunt and pebbled with little protrusions - he'd figured it was why they all aged so well.   
From his training, he knew aging human and salarian skin developed wrinkles just like Turian plates cracked in time.

She blinked, the pink tint going deeper as he watched, fascinated by the long, thin tendrils of hair that stuck out of her eyelids - as delicate as the veins in an insect's wing.

His thumb was shifting up and down her cheek without him even realizing it. Now that he looked closer, he could see human skin had hair everywhere, even on their faces. But it was so fine he couldn't even feel it.

She leaned forward and her eyes fluttered closed. Eye-lashes - that's what they were called - cast weak shadows over her skin. Fragile blue veins showed where it was thinnest, under her eyes and at her temples.

Julie breathed in deep through her nose and canted her head in his palm. When had he cupped the side of her face?  
His hand was longer than her head, the tips of his fingers were in the soft hair on the top of her head.   
Such a strange, yet pleasing texture. Cool to the touch where it was farther from her scalp and flowing like silk.

He didn't know what this was. He couldn't understand what it meant, but he knew she was waiting for something.

So he closed his eyes too and touched his forehead to hers, slower and gentler than he'd ever done with anyone else.

He could feel her breath going out against his mouth-plates in a rush. Her breath smelled sweet, warm and alive and he let himself exhale and relax.

Vex felt something unknot in his chest, like relief and satisfaction and a little bit of something else he couldn't define. 

_We shouldn't be doing this._

The pleased hum that had been building up in his chest stuttered to a stop as he backed away.

Moore opened her eyes and looked up at him in confusion, still leaning over the counter and breathing a little heavier than usual.

He took another step back and hit the stove. Good thing he'd turned the heat off, his ass might have been toast now.

Something shifted on her face and he could only watch as confusion changed to hurt. He could feel his heart thump all the way to the back of his head.

Moore swallowed, nodded once as her face paled.  
She pushed off the counter and rounded it.

He was ready to apologise and possibly dodge a (deserved) punch with his hands halfway raised, but she only grabbed the bowls of food and started setting them at their appropriate places on the table.

People started filing in, chattering over the dizzying rush of blood in his ears.

He'd fucked up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Opening up to someone ain't easy, right?
> 
> Thank you guys so much for sticking around! I want to make up for lost time now that I have a few days off.
> 
> I've been writing and editing again and it feels good. I've missed it.


	19. Black lagoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> !!!!!!small spoiler!!!!!
> 
> Trigger warning for child death in this chapter
> 
> !!!!!!!!

The new shuttle provided by the salarians was entering atmo, waves of orange and white lighting up the interior through the reinforced glass. 

Sylcus had taken himself and Fakra down to investigate the abandoned colony.

  
Tenn had attempted to make contact, but he couldn't even connect to flight control. Hal couldn't find any workaround - there was simply nothing there, not even stray radio waves from planetside.  
The lack of chatter was disturbing. It was as though the place was completely devoid of intelligent life. Even the satellites around the planet were quiet. On standby.

The planet was beautiful, lush vegetation coloring the solitary island on it with green like an oasis of land in the middle of a vast ocean. The colony was situated in the center, sheltered from storms and winds by a formation of rounded narrow mountains circling it like a shallow bowl.

Moore had taken one look at it and deemed it a long dormant volcano.   
If Vex hadn't made her hate him, he might have asked how a settlement could be built in such a potentially dangerous place. But she'd been so cordial, so… _cold_… with him after that mistake that keeping his mouth shut was the better option.

Finding a place to land was easy. All the landing pads were empty, a little dirty and unkept, but serviceable.  
Hal set the shuttle down to let them disembark then took off again.   
He wasn't as good as Tenn, but the kid did alright with a few lessons from the old salarian. He would stick around in case they needed a quick evac and provide tech support or act as a relay if anything happened to their signal in the meantime.

Sylcus led the team down into the main building adjacent to the landing pads. Flight control should always be manned, even on a secret colony. 

It was a mess. Every piece of tech smashed to bits.

  
<<Ground team, come in.>> Tenn requested 

"Copy, what've you got Tenn?" Sylcus brought a hand up to her aural canal to press on the communicator.

<<Found Horodan. Inert in stable orbit. No life signs detected.>> 

The Horodan was the small salarian cargo-hauler that had brought the first team over. It wasn't even a military ship, just an old, salvaged hunk of junk the salarians had repaired and sent out.   
Vex scrolled through the readings Tenn had sent to their omnis. Now he understood why Linron had wanted their ship so badly if this was the best the salarians had left.  
He had no doubt they were building new warships, but those took time. More than this colony had to spare.

"Good job Tenn, keep an eye on its drive just in case. Wouldn't want any surprises."

<<Maybe we should board it and investigate? Find out what happened?>> Lu asked and Vex grunted in denial. His comms were off so only the ground team heard him.

"Stay right where you are. Nobody goes off half cocked. Plus, I doubt it has any more information than we can find down here. Captain Gerlee was planetside when he sent the last transmission. If anyone was left up there…"

They were probably long dead.

<<Whatever you say, bosslady, comm us if you change your mind.>> Lu clicked off.

"Vex, any luck with the console?" Sylcus came up beside him. He'd been trying to get into the flight control logs, or salvage… anything, really.

"Negative. They probably wiped it before destroying it too. Don't think we have time to attempt a recovery." Vex banged his fist weakly against the dusty metal. The impact sent the grime flying and he waved his hand in front of his visor to clear it.

"How much you wanna bet the rest is the same?" Fakra grumbled.

"I may be bad at poker, but even I don't take those sorts of wagers." Sylcus hummed, he could hear the smile in her voice. Might have even chuckled a little himself if he weren't so… _whatever_ he was.

"Lets move out." Sylcus gestured to the exit. He and the krogan flanked her on either side and followed her out.

The rest of their search revealed much of the same. The prefab buildings were stripped of food and most of the comms had been abandoned in a pile down the main road and turned to slag.

Clothes were strewn about in some places, but no outright signs of violence. It looked like people had just… left.  
They found some intact datapads with some reports of daily life but they all tended to stop logging around the same date.   
There were a few disturbing entries about people acting strange. Talking to themselves or moving in groups in perfect synchrony, or going out into the jungle and coming back a little wrong. Nothing to explain what had happened though.

  
The glass buildings revealed empty pools overgrown with algae. At the uppermost level, they found the first signs that someone had lived there.

The sickly smell of rot and algae tipped them off first. Something had died here, but they couldn't spot any bodies around.

Fakra was the one to find them first. She'd been sniffing the air with her helmet off (how she could stomach it was beyond him, the scrubbers were having trouble keeping most of it out of his breathing air).

Sylcus and Vex both turned at the weak gasp that left the krogan. She was leaning over one of the larger pools, a thick gelatinous soup by now. 

A salarian body had sunken to the bottom and she'd pulled it up by a leg. It was caught up in algae and around it bobbed… fist sized, tadpole shaped little bodies.

"Fuck." Sylcus swore under her breath, subharmonics whining in grief. 

He knew she used to be married, she'd come back to active service after a medical problem. He'd heard the rumors. He knew what had happened to her.

About eleven years ago, when he was done with bootcamp, fast-tracked through biotic training and got assigned on his first, and only, Cabal crew - Sylcus had been a very different woman.  
This was probably bringing up all sorts of wrong with her.

He didn't feel right about it either.

And Fakra… well… he'd never seen her freeze like that before.

Vex broke away from the group and hacked one of the lab-rooms open. Unhatched eggs lay dead or cracked in clutches of three, grouped into separate little hatcheries. The smell was somehow worse here.

"Why…" he rasped.

Fakra dropped the body with a splash and stood back, silent.

"T-the terminals." Sylcus' voice was hoarse. "Check the terminals."

He complied and tried to access the one closest to him while carefully avoiding looking at the sad heaps of eggs and a few tiny, dessicated bodies that had attempted to crawl out.

"There's nothi-"

"Check _again_."

Vex tried another one, and another one… at the fourth one, he stopped. They were all broken anyway.  
"Captain."

Sylcus held up a hand and exited the room, he could see her shoulders shaking while she struggled to breathe.

Vex passed the krogan and scanned the adult body and a few of the little ones surrounding it that were close enough to be caught in the light.   
Karthu Fen, one of the crew sent with Gerlee to investigate. Shot in the back of the head. Must have been leaning over the pools when he was killed.   
Vex commed in with a small warning of what to expect and sent the data up to Lu's omni for analysis.

There was a long stretch of silence as he stood above the festering pool and waited for a reply. Neither of the two women he was with said anything, but Sylcus came back in and waited behind him.

<<Hey, Vex.>> Lu chimed in. <<Can you scan the other bodies too?>>

"They're dead kids, Lu, what are you expecting to find?" his voice came out rougher and meaner than he expected.

Lu dry-swallowed and spoke. <<Call it a hunch. Just do it.>>

He activated his scanner again with a grunt of disgust and shone the light over the murky waters.  
Then he went and scanned the eggs too, just to be thorough.

  
<<Huh.>> Lu hummed.

"You got anything?" Sylcus asked.

<<They're all female.>>

<<Check room designation. Only fertilized eggs yield female salarians. Likely only room.>> Tenn added hoarsely.

"Fertilization lab." Fakra said from the hallway. That damn krogan could move like a ghost when she wanted to.

<<Why did they only abandon the girls…>> Ianni's voice was heard faintly in the background of Lu's channel.

<<Politically motivated? No. Colony empty. No one leads. Who benefits?>> Tenn asked.

"They won't be _benefitting_ for long." Sylcus growled.

\-------------------------

The empty hangars and garages left the team with no leads and Sylcus quietly fuming. There were some tracks that led outside of the small settlement, towards the restricted zone Linron hadn't wanted them to explore and the jungle.

Good thing she was dead. 

They would camp for the night and wait for daylight to hit again before going out to explore the tropical jungle and whatever the salarians were hiding beyond the mountains.

Sylcus had called Hal down to the outskirts of the colony, close enough that they would notice if anything moved, but far enough away and hidden in a clearing by a small waterfall that they wouldn't risk being found by hostiles (if there were any) and could flee or defend their position.  
There was plenty of cover in the form of boulders or thick treetrunks. One giant square-ish stone dominated the field on their left. It was a good place for a lookout.

Vex swallowed the last bit of his ration in silence. Hal was rifling in the back of the shuttle, they'd let him have the bench for the night. 

The jungle was hot and humid when they'd first found the spot, but now it was cooling as the red sun sunk behind the mountains.

Vex wished he'd had more time in the sun, but things being what they were everyone was already antsy to get it over with and leave.

They hadn't found any other trace of the remaining members of the scouting party.   
Lu, being the highest ranking officer aboard (despite belonging to an entirely different governing body) had reported their initial findings to the Primarch and the new Dalatrass Linron.

Apparently Victus liked Marika a great deal more than the old Linron. Vex wasn't particularly fond of either salarians, but as long as the big man was happy and Marika didn't try another genocide, he was fine with it.

He hadn't heard anything from Moore the whole day. It felt… strangely lonely, even though he was surrounded by his crew.  
He would have liked to talk to her, or at least hear her voice.   
What they'd found, what they'd seen… he didn't know how the others were coping so well now that the initial shock had worn off. 

Vex just wanted to bury his head in the sand and sleep.  
They hadn't even done any strenuous physical activity and he felt bone-tired.  
He would take second watch after Hal, so he tried to get some shut-eye but the images kept floating back to the surface every time he marginally relaxed.  
He'd seen plenty of fucked up shit in his career. He didn't know if this was worse than the Reapers or not.

After about half an hour of agonizing, he gave up and joined Hal atop the large square stone. There were steps chiseled into the side and eroded by moss or water long ago.   
He wondered what had lived on Raekan before the salarians found it and built their colony.  
Maybe another long-extinct civilization. Maybe they'd been done in by the Reapers too. No one would ever know.

The stone was high enough that it felt like he was climbing up into a pool of stars rimmed by a circling canopy of thick, dark leaves.

When he reached the top, he found Hal sitting on a mostly emptied supply pack, head swivelling left and right as he checked around him.  
The quarian didn't acknowledge Vex as he lay with his head and cowl cushioned by a bit of free pack.

"You're supposed to check behind you too." Vex murmured while staring up into the foreign constellations. He felt like he could touch the sky if he reached out, make it ripple like water.  
It was a far better image than the murky darkness of the breeding pools.

"Are you ok?" Hal hedged.

Vex sighed and closed his eyes.  
"I will be."

"How… how do you do this?" the young man asked as he shifted to check behind.

"Charm everyone? Well, I've always been quite handsome for my kind, the only thing dragging down my prospects were the biotics." Vex tried to joke and failed as his voice cracked at the end.   
He knew what the kid was asking, but he couldn't answer. There wasn't a secret combination of thoughts or exercises to deal with this kind of tragedy. Vex just did what he always did - it was a job that needed doing, so he did it.  
Whether he got any sleep afterwards was a matter of distraction or exhaustion (usually _both_).

Hal was quiet for a long while. The jungle silent around them.

Vex was on the brink of falling asleep, the quiet sussuring of the waterfall lulling him into a half-dream state when his friend spoke again, voice small and vulnerable.  
"I miss home."

  
Vex opened his eyes, falling into the stars all over again. Hal was hunched over his knees.

  
Vex's home was the Agilis. He'd lost any tie to Palaven long ago. It would have been nice to see it again though. He wondered if it had stopped burning.

  
He reached up and bumped the back of his hand over the boy's back.

"We'll get you there."

\-------------------------

The morning brought mist and biting insects only Fakra complained about. The little bastards couldn't get to Hal and even if they could, they'd soon learn that trying to drink dextro blood was bad for them.

The thinner hide at his and Sylcus' necks was a little irritated, but nothing life-threatening if Lu was to be believed.

The night had passed in relative peace. Vex had gone through his watch while Hal slept curled up next to him. He'd woken Fakra next and found a nice spot to lean his back against a wide-trunked tree to sleep. 

He'd woken up when Sylcus took the last watch and couldn't fall back asleep again so he just kept his eyes closed and listened to the jungle wake up.

  
It was quiet at first, a few alien howls echoing like a wail, muted thumps and small rattles in the dry leaves.   
Then, as dawn broke, whoops and whistles and eerie little trills filled the air with song.   
He'd recorded some of it on his omni. A beautiful chaos of sound. Each creature competing to be heard in the choir of the wild.

It was nice to remind himself not everything was dead. That life always found a way, even if the whole damn Galaxy was a graveyard.

Sylcus gave the order to pack up and eat while they still could. They'd be moving once the sun had fully risen.

Hal was mumbling something grumpy behind his helmet as he got in the pilot's seat. Something about a sore back. He'd ended up sleeping on the big stone all night. 

  
Sylcus was the last to board. She was closing the side-hatch and Hal was starting the engines when a shout rung out from deeper into the jungle.  
Vex had his rifle ready as Sylcus brought up a barrier.

"Wait!" a rough looking old salarian shouted as he ran out in the open. "Please! Don't leave me here!"

He was wearing a battered gray armor and no helmet, his face was riddled with thousands of tiny wrinkles and his eyes were wide with fear.

Sylcus hopped off as the shuttle lifted and Vex immediately followed. Fakra landed with a loud thump behind them, covering their backs.  
Over the radio, the Caballim ordered Hal to lift off but stick around.

The old salarian skidded to a stop in front of them, throwing dirt up with the heels of his boots.

"I-I'm Captain Joran Gerlee. Dalatrass Linron sent me ahead of you. I saw you landing yesterday. You're here for the Neurotoxin shipment, right?" he was breathing heavily, hands thrown out in front of him to show he was unarmed. "Please, take me with you! They're crazy!"

The old Captain fell to his knees in front of them and continued begging and crying. 


	20. The thing that should not be

Getting Gerlee to calm down took a lot of patience.  
Getting the whole story out of him was a lot easier though, he was more than ready to spill the beans on his whole mission as long as he got a ride off the planet.

Turned out one of the native plants that grew in certain areas of the jungle secreted a potent neurotoxin. The breeding colony existed alongside two small laboratories that specialized in tending to and harvesting the plants that grew in the volcanic soil there and nowhere else.

The reason it was so desired? It could trick most scanners and food processors. 

The downside was that the plant took years to grow and only developed the desired chemicals during it's flowering cycle - which was limited in a bulb's lifetime and only occured if certain natural conditions were met.

There was a lot more gibberish and science stuff he didn't understand or care for that had Lu fascinated and Sylcus cringing at but that was the dumbed down version Ianni had given them after analyzing some of the data Gerlee still had on his omni.

The man used to be STG and had specialized in poisons once upon a time.   
Vex didn't like him. He kept insisting they get the shipment and leave as soon as possible.

He said a few of the colonists had also worked in both the labs and the breeding facilities. Vex had trouble wrapping his head around that. How could they be anywhere near kids after working with such a dangerous substance? They must have had riguros decontamination protocols.

Gerlee was a twitchy, cowering little man. Shorter than Tenn almost by a head and already stooping in his old age (which brought him closer to Hal in height) but the stringy muscles on his arms and his quick eyes spoke of a life of action and quick-witted survival. He might have been old and a little mad, but he was no fool.

Sylcus and Fakra took turns questioning him, using C-Sec interrogation tactics Vex was surprised either of them knew. They would start chronologically, then go back and wind through time, then ask for clarification over something the old salarian had said in the beginning. As if they were expecting to catch him in a lie.

Vex stood silent and recorded everything, took notes here and there whenever he thought Gerlee wasn't being completely truthful.

His story was strange and all over the place at first - then catching shape as the questions yielded results.

He and his team had been sent to Raekan to investigate why the colony had stopped their regular updates, fix the problem and retrieve the latest shipment of toxic paste, assuming the faulty ancient satellites and relays had finally failed somewhere along the way. 

It was only after Gerlee had stopped responding too that Linron figured out something was wrong and talked to the Primarch to set up her deal.  
Gerlee had been stuck here for a little over two months.

He'd left their pilot, Linso Cay, up in orbit with the ship and took the engineer, Karthu Fen, and the comms specialist, Taka Ranes, to the colony.  
  
They'd found a few of the colonists as they were milling about, seemingly aimlessly.  
At first, they'd thought some of the neurotoxin or an unexpected derivative had been introduced to the colony's water supply by accident, but all his tests came back negative.

They'd spent some time on the planet, usually apart from the colonists and had spotted the strange ship two nights later.  
They'd tried to get more answers out of the colonists, but they were either too far gone or pretending to be in order to avoid the questions. 

Linso had managed to snap a picture with the ship's outer cameras (which were old and meant for identifying light contrast in space for navigation).  
Gerlee's copy was a lot clearer than what Linron had received and the profile was terrifyingly familiar.

It was roughly diamond shaped, with the lower part smaller than the top and what looked like legs sticking out. The camera was blurred with what was probably a mass effect field around it.

But it couldn't be a Reaper.

All four of them had stared at the capture in stunned silence when Gerlee had first whipped it out, then broke out in arguments - Fakra yelling at the salarian that he was a liar, Sylcus holding her back. Hal scanning and rescanning the picture to verify it's authenticity.  
All the while, Gerlee kept telling them they should all run.

Vex had been mostly unaware of it while it was happening.   
His mind was flashing with images of the Reaper that had almost killed them slowly drifting into the the planet's gravity as he was cradling Lu's limp body in his arms. 

  
The comms chirped a couple of times before he noticed them. Moore was requesting a connection. Hal must have sent the picture up.

He'd only hesitated a few more seconds before accepting the call.  
Her voice was low… soothing… when it came through, but thrumming with what he'd come to recognise as fear in her.   
No trace of resentment.  
It made him feel guilty.

While the others had been shouting and he'd been spiraling down his shitty memory-lane, Moore had analyzed the data and concluded that the ship was too small to be any of the recorded Reaper profiles.  
Still bigger than a frigate, but nowhere near the scope or size of even the smallest of Reapers.

Once all the explanations were out of the way, Gerlee was allowed to continue his story, which ended with the colonists rushing them just as the report was being sent out.   
As if they 'd known.

Or _something_ had.

Fakra and Sylcus had continued to grill Gerlee all through the day. There was something that didn't add up after they'd gotten ganged up on.   
Ranes had supposedly been killed in the first skirmish and Fent had run off while Gerlee got away on their small shuttle.  
There was also the matter of the Horodan and its pilot, for which Gerlee had no answer.

No matter how much Sylcus prodded, his story remained the same.  
Vex didn't believe him, but couldn't prove the contrary either.

  
Sylcus didn't feel comfortable bringing this man up to the ship with them. He could tell by the set of her shoulders and how she'd squinted at him when he'd asked to leave the planet again  
Also because she'd said "_No_." in the most menacing tone he'd ever heard.

"B-but, we can't stay here! What if they come back?!" Gerlee argued.

"We've got bigger problems than a bunch of colonists. I don't know what's going on with those poor people but it's directly related to whatever than _thing_ is." Sylcus said and pointed at the holo Hal was staring at with a sharp talon.

She backed away and motioned Hal with her while Fakra and Vex remained with Gerlee. The krogan was eyeing the old salarian like he was the reason the strange ship had appeared in the first place. He only twitched every now and then and ignored her.

  
"Hal, can you route me to the QEC?" he heard Sylcus murmur behind them.  
"Doesn't work like that, but you can send someone in with an active connection to your omni?" the quarian replied in a shaky voice.

"Got it. Lu? Call the Primarch and send him everything we've got so far." the Caballim ordered over comms.

Lu acknowledged and set up the connection. One of the aides picked up and they waited for the Primarch to show up. Apparently it was night on Earth and the man had been sleeping.   
Vex couldn't muster the energy to care much.

It took another round of explaining. Victus was carefully silent and measured as he took in the information and looked at the data they had sent.   
Thank the Spirits for QEC technology, it would have taken them weeks, maybe months, to get in contact with command otherwise.

"Sir, what am I dealing with here? Did the Crucible wave not reach the Annos Basin? Are we still at war?"

<<I don't believe I can answer all your questions, Captain. I've sent your data-packet along to someone who might be able to be of more use. I'm just hoping she's awake at this hour…>> Victus muttered the last part under his breath. He sounded tired, the harsh sound of interference and his voice echoing around the room muffling what could have been a sigh or a yawn.

Vex and Fakra exchanged a concerned look and the krogan harrumphed.

<<Ah, it seems we are in luck.>>

There was some background noise, an airlock hissing open and closed and a hoarse feminine voice greeting the Primarch, then Lu sucking in a breath too close to the omni.

<<Spectre Williams here. What is it you actually _saw_, Captain Sylcus?>>

\-------------------------

  
Leviathan.

That's what the humans had called them.  
His omni defined them as mythical monster of the seas from one of their many religious books.

It seemed an insufficient moniker for what Spectre Williams was describing.   
Ancient aquatic aliens with unbelievable powers.   
The creators of the Reapers.  
The whole reason they were in this mess to begin with.

The secret allies none other than Commander Shepard had convinced to finally join the war after aeons of hiding.

And they were on a planet that was one big ocean with a spot of land on it.

"And these… artifacts or fragments… what are they?" Sylcus puzzled over the comm, her voice was spent and hoarse after talking so much.

<<We never got the chance to find out, usually they were kept in special shields while our people transported them to husk-infested regions - but they're bad news. Caused a whole lot of damage before Ski - Commander Shepard sorted it all out.>> the second human Spectre said. She sounded worse than Sylcus.

It was still somewhat of a shock to hear her. Everyone knew of the Normandy crew and some of their most famous exploits during the War.

Williams hadn't gone into detail but she'd said their ship, the Normandy SR-2, and it's crew had been thrown off-course by the red wave and crash-landed on a garden world. They'd repaired their ship enough to slowly limp back to the Sol System and were rescued just outside of the inactive Sol Relay by the crew sent there to try and fix it.  
Apparently they landed on Earth around the same time his crew was on Sur'Kesh.   
Williams was impressed with their work and complimented Sylcus for removing "that traitorous bag of ass" from power.   
This Spectre lacked much of Shepard's famed diplomacy, but Vex liked her more for it. She seemed an honest sort.

  
"What about the other colonies that went dark? Anything like this there?" 

The comm buzzed with silence.   
<<None of the other scouts have reported in yet. A couple of them should have already reached their destination by now.>> Spectre Williams finally said.

Vex sat on a stump. His calf was bothering him again, he'd been standing around doing fuck-all too long.  
Gerlee had his eyes closed and was twitching and muttering to himself. Vex felt a little sorry for the old Captain. It sounded like the entire colony was under the Leviathan's influence and he and his team had been caught in the middle of whatever the thing was planning.

  
"So, our allies have turned against us. How do you kill one of these things anyway?" Sylcus mused.

<<With a really big gun, I guess.>> Williams chuckled weakly.

  
"Great." Vex rumbled.

Gerlee had opened his eyes and was staring at Sylcus.  
Fakra jolted awake (she'd been dozing) as the spindly salarian rose from where he'd been cowering.

"You _cannot_." he said, voice strangely flat but loud at the same time.  
"_Turn back_." he ordered and took a step forward.

Then he shook his head like a varren and fell in a heap by Fakra's feet.  
"I didn't hit him." she said with her big hands raised. If it hadn't been so creepy it might have been amusing.

<<Ah. Figured he was a thrall too. Must be too far away to be fully affected though.>> Williams added nonchalantly.

Their group paused in surprise to stare at the old salarian.

"Why didn't you say anything?! He's been here this whole time!" Sylcus growled.

Williams coughed discreetly. <<Wanted to make sure. Easier to provoke a reaction. These things think they're at the top of the food chain now and they don't like threats or being exposed. Shepard _did_ say they were arrogant.>>

Sylcus pinched the bridge of her nose, the gesture reminded him of Moore whenever she was annoyed at something.

"How should we proceed from here, ma'am?" the Captain asked.

<<Find the fragment, blow it. Save the colony.>> Williams said. The shuffling sound must have been her shrugging.  
<<We can't let these fuckers get a foothold in our worlds. I'm not trading their robots for the organic equivalent. You just got us confirmation Raekan has a Leviathan infestation. You're closes to the problem, Captain Sylcus. And I already know you and your team are capable. Do what you can.>> the Spectre ordered and Vex felt a shiver run up his spine. He kind of had the urge to salute.

"Understood. Thank you for the assist, Spectre."   
<<Keep me posted. Good hunting, Captain.>>

The QEC clicked off and Lu wheezed a barely audible "that was hot".

  
\-------------------------

  
There was no way for them to trace the Leviathan's signal. Williams had told them they'd gotten help from a friendly AI last time (and skipped the details, though her voice was tinged with sorrow - another human with an AI friend it seemed).

Even if they could, Vex doubted they could take the thing out. The Agilis was an old corvette built for speed and maneuverability. It had mounted rail-guns for defense but no canon - too big to carry, too taxing on the drive to risk installing anyway.

Moore suggested taking it down with a precision strike from orbit if they could direct a really big rock down at the planet - provided the monster didn't move in the meantime.  
They'd also cause a tidal wave that would swallow their only patch of land, so it was a hard pass on that one.

Their only other avenue of investigation were the secret laboratories or the colonists.  
The problem was, their locations were unknown and Gerlee wasn't talking anymore - he'd gone into a sort of fugue state. He only mumbled to himself while curled up. Poor bastard.

It seemed time and proximity to the mysterious artifacts determined the level of enthallment to the Leviathan, so time was of the essence.  
Sylcus had the Agilis doing aerial sweeps above them, searching for anything out of the ordinary.  
Vex hadn't seen the old girl flying through an atmosphere in a long time. He hoped the new plating the salarians had installed was good.

He didn't much like that they were sitting around with their thumbs up their asses, but short of venturing into the untamed jungle to search on foot (which was just asking for trouble) there wasn't much any of them could do.   
Sylcus didn't want to take the shuttle and try and sweep the area either. They already knew the creature could fly like a ship and had biotics - at least the Agilis could defend itself or run away if the beast showed up. 

"Think the fucker's watching us?" Fakra grumbled from beside him. They still had Gerlee duty. Vex had welded a cage together from bits of railing and a smooth metal plate they'd found around town. He didn't like imprisoning the poor old man like that, but they didn't want to risk him getting violent and hurting himself.

"Who, Gerlee? I'm pretty sure all he's seeing are his own knees."

"No, dumbass. The _thing_!" she gestured with a large hand at the sky.

Vex shrugged. They hadn't seen anyone else around. 

"Maybe it can… sense our thoughts?" Vex asked with a shudder.

"Ugh. Now you made me regret talkin' to ya."

Vex shrugged again and tipped his head back, letting the sun warm his face. Might as well enjoy the break while he had it.   
He idly wondered what Moore was doing and immediately cringed away from that train of thought. He should get over this whole… thing… apologize, get back to normal and… wait to hit port and drink himself stupid like any sane person.

  
<<We've got something.>> Lu announced on the comms.  
<<Sending you the navpoint.>>

"Good work. What do our sensors pick up?" Sylcus asked. 

<<Was getting there. It looks like a couple of small prefab buildings linked together. Might be a lab. Might be where the colonists are hiding out. Can't tell.>>

"All of them in a place that tiny? Doesn't sound plausible." Sylcus said.

<<Hey, husks used to pile on top of each other, how should I know what this thing is having the colonists do?>> Lu mumbled.

He didn't get a chance to tease Lu when Moore came in.  
<<I did spot a series of cavernous entrances on the southside, where the ocean's closest to the volcano's rim. Scans show there might be hollowed out pockets underground around there too. Might be worth investigating.>>

"They have a perfectly good town here, why would they live in a cave?" he found himself asking before he even realized it.

Moore cleared her throat and answered in her 'scientific report' monotone. <<The Leviathan is aquatic. Stands to reason it'd want it's workers close-by. You didn't find any of those artifacts Williams was talking about in town. Maybe it doesn't have any?>>

"Or maybe it just likes making people live in caves like primitives. We'll check it out next. Good work, Julie." Sylcus said with a raised brow his way.

Fakra grunted as she got up and activated the anti-grav locks he'd slapped on the cage's corners, then pushed Gerlee out in front of her, behind Sylcus.  
Vex followed after the old krogan, watching their six.

Hal would take flight again and stay low, avoid contact with anyone (or anything) and be ready to come to them if they needed evac.

Without the jungle, they would have made it to their destination in a little over half an hour.   
The dense foliage made it difficult to fit the narrow cage through, but Sylcus whipped out her hunting knife and started hacking. Paired with a few biotic bursts here and there, it was enough to clear a path.  
She was swearing at a particularly stubborn vine when Fakra rumbled: "So what'd you do?" in her best approximation of a whisper.

"What do you mean?" Vex asked, he was careful of his footing while also keeping a lookout for danger and didn't register the sly glint in the krogan's eye.

"Why're you at the top of little Doc's shitlist?" she grumble-whispered again with a knowing grin widening her maw.

Vex straightened and batted a giant insect longer than his finger out of his visor. It had been buzzing around him for a while.

"I'm certain I don't know what you're talking about." he muttered.

"Whatever you say, Gimpy." she turned back with an amused huff.

Vex kept walking and looking around, but something was bugging him and it wasn't the insects.

"Why do you think that?" he found himself asking. The damn krogan had gotten to him.

"Hmph? Though ya didn't know what I'm talkin' bout."

Vex grunted, all subvocals.

"That bad, hm?" Fakra nodded sympathetically.

"I… did something I shouldn't have." 

"How'd it make you feel?"

"Huh? Like a deadbeat, what do you think?!" he tired keeping his voice down but Sylcus had glanced behind at them anyway. Even Gerlee was looking at him a little crosseyed.

"No, you birdbrain. While ya were doin' it." Fakra reached back and thumped him on the fringe.

Vex rubbed at his head and ran his tongue over the backs of his teeth. He'd almost bitten it off.

Remembering the feeling of touching Moore like that was distracting in the best and worst ways.  
He'd felt good, at peace for the first time… in a long time.

Even recalling the shape of her cheek or the way her eyelashes fluttered close as he leaned down sent a giddy little thrill up and down his arms. It was nothing like what he was used to, but it was _her_.  
He would have been content just hearing her laugh, it always improved his mood.

It was a little ridiculous something so simple and innocent could make him so happy.

_There it was_.  
He'd been happy.

And now he really wasn't.

Vex hummed to himself as the damn krogan chuckled at him evilly. 

"Heads up." Sylcus warned and all thoughts of happiness washed away.  
This was why he'd hesitated. Whatever or whoever made him happy also made him weak. 

Distracted. 

Ineffective.

Maybe Artem wouldn't have died if Vex had payed more attention to his team and surroundings and hadn't rushed out of the Agilis like a madman to see what had happened to the Nefenia. To search for Lu.

  
There was a clearing up ahead, another waterfall with a large pool next to which a small prefab lab was hidden.   
Even covered in foliage, the white of the outer walls stood out like a sore thumb. Vines had crawled up the side, obscuring it partially.

Fakra put Gerlee's cage down and took out her shotgun.   
Both of them fanned out behind the Captain as she took point.  
There was no outward indication of sentient life and his scans didn't reveal any mines or booby traps he could think of so they cautiously approached.

The lab turned out to be empty. Dust had settled over everything, a meal had spoiled in the mess and personal effects lay abandoned - as if the doctors working there had simply slagged all their communication devices (thrown in a sad pile in a corner) and left.

Fakra found two small carefully sealed barrels of the neurotoxin in one of the side-rooms and Vex was scanning the vertical crops of small yellowing plants.   
Hard to think the little guys could kill anything.

Sylcus was scrolling through the logs on a surprisingly intact terminal.  
Judging by her annoyed huff it was only science babble and held no indication as to where the people had gone.

  
"We got part of the shipment. No sign of the scientists though, this place has been abandoned for a while." she announced on the long-range comms.  
"We'll head back to our spot and fly to the caves. Maybe Julie's got the winning pot this time."

<<That was the worst poker joke yet.>> Lu grumbled on the other side.  
Sylcus hummed in amusement.

Was it him or were these two a little _too_ close?   
Vex felt like he was missing some subtext but couldn't quite put his talon on it.

  
\-------------------------

  
Moore was giving them a few more details on the cave layout from further scans. There was something blocking the signal from going in too far. Heavy metal deposits or something like it. He'd kind of spaced out while she was talking. He missed hearing her sing.

<<I'm pretty sure there's an underground spring somewhere in there too and access to the ocean on the eastern side. Be careful, might get hot if you go near a still active vein.>>  
She looked hazy in the patchy holo.

<<You sure you don't want us down there for some air support in case the thing decides to show up?>> Lu asked.

"I'm sure it can't fit in a cave. You'll be in more danger if it decides to come up for air though. We don't know what else they're capable of." Sylcus' tone was uncharacteristically tame. Almost like an apology.

<<Will stand by either way.>> Tenn assured.

  
Hal initiated the landing sequence and the shuttle only wobbled a little before he set them down with a thunk. He would make himself scarce as soon as they were off.

The cave entrance required a bit of climbing, but they made it in one piece.  
They'd left Gerlee in his cage with Hal. Couldn't risk any distractions. The old salarian had started furiously yelling at them turn back when they were still in the air.  
Then Sylcus had given him a sedative.  
At least they knew they were on the right track.

  
Vex couldn't hold back the full body shiver as they neared the dark, yawning entrance. There air was colder and there was something… _wrong_… about it. He couldn't even say what disturbed him so much, it was just a feeling at the back of his head. Some old primitive sign of danger the modern turian brain still had.

Maybe Gerlee had been right. Maybe they _should_ turn back.

"Hey!" Fakra grabbed him by the upper arm and pulled him towards her like he weighed nothing.  
His foot scraped the edge of the ledge in front of the entrance, pebbles breaking away and bouncing down the jagged stones. He'd almost fallen.

"Keep your head in the game, Gimpy." she gently pushed him in front of her.  
Vex shook his head and hurried after Sylcus. The lights of their armors automatically turned on in the gloom.

They ended up turning them off after a while. Once they reached deep enough that daylight was a pinprick behind them, strange bioluminescent little worms lit up the cavernous walls like a galaxy all their own.  
Eerie formations like spikes rose out of the floor and ceiling.  
  
There were sounds echoing around them. Dripping water. Something like singing, but nothing like Moore. He wondered if the others could hear it. Felt silly to mention it.

The cave seemed to be one continuous segment, thinning and widening every now and them, sometimes branching out in smaller cracks none of them could fit through.

Eventually they stopped descending and the ground evened out.  
There was a opening somewhere. He could feel the ocean breeze coming from further up ahead. 

It was a strange sensation. Palaven didn't really have large bodies of water that could be deemed an ocean, even a sea. There were lakes and rivers and springs - most of them with freshwater, some were so salty they were toxic to even be around.   
Like every turian with half a brain, Vex had a healthy respect for the ocean. He'd seen pictures of underwater creatures from Thessia and Kahje all of which things were better off left alone.   
It seemed fitting that an ocean had produced the Leviathan. Freaky place made freaky aliens.

The singing is a now hum he can almost hear, but is still uncertain enough of its existence that mentioning it is trivial.

The radio clicks softly, but it is just another subtle sound among many. 

  
The air had gotten warmer and there was the sound of flowing water. Not waves. Something smaller. Something fresh. The glow-worms were thinning out. But they were no longer the only source of light.

Sylcus led the way towards the bright light of day as if in a daze. Unnatural and welcomed after trekking through the cave.  
An opening in the wide ceiling revealed the orange-bronze sun shining. The strobe of light like a beacon over…

Steaming pools of water. One falling into the next.

With a bunch of salarians in them and… were those thadpoles? Children?

  
Sylcus kept her weapon lowered.  
The salarians saw them, but continued milling about as though they didn't exist.  
They were wearing tattered suits and labcoats. No shoes. They didn't seem to mind getting wet.   
There were several young children splashing around.

Vex couldn't remember the last time he'd seen children playing.  
The circumstances made it deeply unsettling.

A pulsing starts at the base of his skull.   
It gains volume with every blink, growing untill his ears ring.

Fakra drops her shotgun.

He feels light. He likes it. A little hungry too. A small voice at the back of his head tells him something's wrong but the singing overpowers it.  
He should eat and get to work. The pools needed tending.

He places his rifle on the ground. It feels wrong to just let it drop like that first thought suggested.

A woman asks him something but the singing makes him ignore her.

No - that felt wrong.   
He _always_ listened to her but now it was like he had better things to do.

Something kept nagging at the back of his head. She sounded pained.  
A ringing.   
Blue light.  
No, a _scream_.

Who was screaming?

There was a scuffle somewhere.

A large alien. Krogan.   
It was holding a woman down.  
He wants to help.

The singing dominates his senses. The pools needed cleaning.

"Ugh..." he falls to his knees, his head pounds with the song. His calf was healed but the missing spurr still bothered him sometimes, he reaches back and presses on the scar, through the mesh of his armor.  
A fragment of a memory flashes through his head "_Maybe a little less lucky with the ladies, but fine_." Her smile felt like safety.

His calf is burning, the pain is his body making the noise in his head recede.

Vex opens his eyes and sees Sylcus' head getting dunked in the largest pool.  
He reacts.  
A weak, unfocused biotic pulse hits the krogan in the side. He knows he does not want either of them hurt but he doesn't quite know why. The feeling is enough to drive his actions.

The krogan stumbles and a sharp pain whistles through his brain. He cradles his head. 

Sylcus is taking deep ragged breaths and trailing water near the pool.  
She yells something he can't quite understand yet. Urgent and pleading. Then hits the krogan with another biotic burst that only makes it take a few steps back.

The salarians are watching them. Eyes dark and pitiless. As though they are simply puppets on a string. 

Vex crawls towards his rifle, but one of the children has run up to him and kicked it away before his hand connects. Another picks it up and trains it on him. He is so small.  
Vex raises his hands.  
He _can't_…

Sylcus and the krogan - her name, it's so close to the surface he can taste it - are staring each other down.  
Then Sylcus dives in the water.

A wordless cry tears out of his throat and he lunges after her. The rifle goes off and the kid falls backward with its kick. 

The krogan is also clutching her head and roaring.

Vex sees a shadow somewhere deep and then there's the same pain, but worse, splitting his head in half. Screams are echoing in the cave.

The water pulses with light and his vision shatters.

\-------------------------

  
Vex opens his eyes to bright day-light. There are low voices moaning in pain around him.

He hears the sound of metal hitting rock. A rattle.

The kid who'd taken his gun is crying, he'd thrown the rifle away. Vex hoped the muzzle wasn't dented.  
The other salarians are similarly distraught.

One of his arms is in the pool and he takes it out, shaking the water away.

Fakra is retching a little further away. She vomits large quantities of chunky, vaguely orange substance.

Vex gets up and looks around for Sylcus.

He has the sneaking suspicion he'd been reaching for her before he passed out.  
He turns to the water.

He dives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise!!
> 
> I always thought these assholes would make problems later.
> 
> I hope I got Ash right, the conversation would be similar with Kaidan but probably more polite.
> 
> There wasn't any way for me to make this neutral and leave the Virmire survivor up to the reader's interpretation so this is based on my first playthrough where Ash and the salarians got rescued while Kaidan protected the bomb. 
> 
> I like both of them a lot and it was a coin-toss that decided which one of them lived back then so *shrugs*


	21. Hit the road

Alunia is frantic. She hobbles from stern to bow and back again, eventually settling to watch the Brick's feeds and look over Tenn's shoulder.

Tenn has been doing sweeps over the small landmass even before the failed check-in. She can hear him cough every now and then.

Hal wanted to go in after them, but Alunia yelled him down and ordered him to hover near the entrance while keeping far enough away to escape if anything that isn't them comes out.

Ianni had been reorganizing the medbay supplies for the past half-hour.

Julie was chewing at a bit of loose skin on her lower lip. She stops when she tastes blood.  
None of her scans were helping. She'd tried just about every sensor the ship had available but she couldn't deduce their location from thermal scans (too warm) or their armor locators (something underground was blocking their signal).

The comm clicks and Hall's voice rings through her omni.  
<<They're coming out!>>

Julie turns back to the cockpit. The feed from the new Brick's sensors show their ID's. All of them.  
And a bunch of other life signatures to boot. 

"Thank the Goddess…" Alunia breathes and bowes her head over the console.  
Tenn gives a little laugh beside her.  
She could hear Ianni's whoop of triumph down the accessway.

<<Hal, you need to get the kids out of here. Tenn, I need you close by, watch our backs. I'm told there are other shuttles nearby, we'll take them up. Lu, Ianni - we've got… a _lot_ of people coming in…>> Liveria ordered. There was too much background noise. People calling out too each other, their voices too muffled for the translator to parse and chopping up the Captains words.

"What happened down there?" Alunia asked, voice steady. 

There was a burst of static and interference. Then an overwhelming cacophony of many voices screaming and crying.

A sudden, eerie wail rose above them and made the speakers screech and cut out at its loudest.

Tenn swerves suddenly and the gravity shifts too fast for the dampeners to catch up. Julie holds on to the copilot's seat while Alunia screams.

"Got flier. Taking evasive maneuvers. Strap in." Tenn instructed.  
Julie stumbled to the access way and strapped in next to Ianni in one of the eight available shock absorbing pods.   
She didn't like being stuck like this but she'd probably break her neck outside of it.

<<F--ra, w--t are y-- _d---ng_!?>> Liveria shouted over the fuzzy comms. Something was interfering with their signal.

"Tenn, shoot that thing!" Alunia yelled.

There was no response other than the steady staccato of the rail-guns firing, deep throbs echoing through the ship and up her bones.

The comm wailed again with another screechy moan. Like an angry alien whale bent on revenge. The ship groaned and Julie wobbled in her straps.

"Our shields can't take too many of those..." Alunia said.

"_Brace_!" Tenn ordered and Julie felt the gravity go away for a fraction of a second, leaving her weightless, then what felt like an elephant pressed her down into the pod's gel, taking her breath away and making her vision blur at the edges.   
She'd heard about combat maneuvers like these. She was pretty sure her eyeballs had been temporarily deformed.

The rail-guns never stopped firing the whole time. Ship groaning and creaking as if it were in pain.

Tenn did another tricky maneuver that had her stomach turning and thew her against the restraints. She could hear Ianni grunting with every jolt. 

There was another loud wail, long and drawn-out. 

"**Yes**!" Tann and Alunia both cheered. The ship evened out and Julie felt almost normal again.

"It's going down!" Alunia said.

  
\-------------------------

After the beast had risen out of the sea with a deafening, angry screech, the salarians had almost scatered and only Sylcus' firm command got them organized.

Vex herded the frantic salarians away from danger. One of the older ones, a wrinkled old mechanic, had said he remembered where they'd hidden the colony's two cargo shuttles and Gerlee's small transport.  
Gerlee himself was still passed out in his cage, it was easier for two of the other salarians to just pull it along on its anti-grav locks than carry the old Captain.

Sylcus is on the other side of the mass of people, keeping a close eye on the gaggle of kids. Some old enough to run, others carried. The tadpoles would need water soon.

Fakra, that crazy old krogan, had jumped in the shuttle, thrown Gerlee out and made Hal take them up.   
She'd shouted something along the lines of 'I've got this.' when Sylcus tried to get her back down.

The Agilis had been caught off guard, he'd seen it pull some impressive stunts to avoid volleys of biotic energy.  
The rail-guns had just pissed the thing off more rather than do any serious damage.

The shuttle was steadily rising, going right for the monster.   
He heard Sylcus shout in her comm but there was too much static to get through. The Leviathan must have been emmiting some sort radio noise that overwhelmed their comms. 

He hoped Fakra wouldn't get both herself and Hal killed. 

Running and a whole lot of scared people had taken up most of his attention afterward.  
He'd heard the Leviathan wailing and the Agilis zipping around. Tenn was working her to her limits.

He caught a glimpse of it getting hit and tumbling then pulling up sharply and leading the beast away from the island.

After more running there was the loudest wail yet. Long and painful on the ears, or maybe it was screaming directly into their minds.

Their group stopped and stared.   
The Leviathan, deceptively small in the distance, was falling.

Vex could still see it's segemented legs spasming as is dove. He lost sight of it behind the rim of the volcano and the tall trees.

The Brick was coming in fast, a stocky little square getting bigger and bigger.  
The static on the radio resolved into Moore's frantic voice, screaming at them to get off the ground.

A boom like thunder sounded from where the Leviathan had gone down.

Vex pushed the person next to him and finally found his voice.  
"RUN!"

A cool breeze blew in from behind them.  
The Brick passed overhead, trailing smoke.

Gerlee had woken up and looked around him weakly.

Sylcus Charged ahead to where the Brick was hovering and shaking. One of it's lateral thusters was damaged, and the chassis was bent in the back. Small miracle it was still flying.

Behind it, covered in camouflage patterned tarps, were the other shuttles and several of the missing rovers.

Some of the adult salarians were uncovering the shuttles and ushering the little ones in.  
The Brick opened up and revealed a chuckling Fakra, coughing and covered in grime - the inside was thick with smoke.

The wind was picking up, sky deceptively clear. There was the smell of the ocean again, stronger - salt and brine and rotting things.

Moore's voice was joined by Lu, shrill and demanding.

Vex helped the others board their respective shuttles then got pulled along into the Brick by Sylcus and shoved up into the crowded, smoky space. It was time to go.

He watched in horror as some of the salarians - the old ones from what he could tell, among them Gerlee who was finally free of his cage, stay behind. The shuttle's hatch was closing just as the stragglers started boarding one of the ground transports.   
He doubted it would do much good.

\-------------------------

  
Hearing Fakra tell it, escaping the Leviathan sounded more like a fairy tale than fact. A really gruesome, brutal and kind of gross fairytale, but oddly charming as well.

Julie leaned against the bulkhead and listened to the old krogan again. She had a pleasantly gruff voice, and a knack for keeping the kids interested with unexpectedly elegant hand gestures and a story-tellers cadence.

It was a little surreal, seeing the scarred old krogan surrounded by salarian youths and enjoying the attention.   
Some of the adults had also boarded to take care of the surving tadpoles and the youngest of the bunch. They lingered at the fringes or watched from the medbay.

The ship was packed. Seventeen salarian children of varying ages and five infants, plus five adults hotbunking with them.  
The Horodan had taken another thirty-one adults and teenagers in total. It was all that the shuttles could carry.

The air scrubbers on the Agilis were taxed beyond their limits and the ship was a couple degrees hotter than normal. It was still better than the other ship. The air must have been soup on the Horodan.

Much better than a watery grave planetside either way.

The old cargo hauler had been thankfully intact, easy to board and use. They'd found the pilot's body in his chair, the pistol the Leviathan had made him use still clutched in his thin hand.   
Julie had wondered why the Leviathan had kept the ship and the transports. Perhaps it had planned to move the salarians once its control over them had been consolidated.

Fakra had reached the climax of her story. The moment she had thrown the barrels of neurotoxin "right in the Beast's eye!" while holding her arms out to indicate the size of it's eyeball. Or maybe the barrels blowing up. She'd been changing the story around, tweaking details on every telling. Sometimes it was in the wounds caused by the Agilis' rail-guns, other times it was it's mouth or that she'd stuck a grenade on the side of one of the barrels which spread the sludge everywhere.

The children giggled and clapped, fidgeted in their seats around the table and on the floor.

She then showed the monster falling in the ocean, motioning with a meaty fist hitting her palm then rising out of her seat dramatically to show the giant wave stirred by its crash.

In reality, the wave had taken some time to work up. The mass of water displaced by the Leviathan's body, rolling over itself and gaining momentum as the ripple panned out in all directions at once, becoming taller only as it neared the rising soil and rock of the volcano.

The story always conveniently left out the fate of those who couldn't fit in the shuttles.  
Tenn had tried to find them after the resulting storm had passed and the water had settled, but there was no trace of the brave few who had sacrificed themselves so that the others might survive.

The only indicator that there had ever been land on Raekan was the rim of the volcano, sticking out like a thin rocky circle in the middle of a vastness of deep, foreboding blue.

Just like that, all of the unique land flora and fauna had been wiped out. Hal had reported some small winged creatures still roving about the place but unless they could survive on whatever fish equivalent Raekan had and only need a bit of rock to rest on, they were doomed to slowly starve or die by the elements.

Fakra was revelling in the attention and handing out the last of their chocolate to the gathered children.  
It was a strange sight, seeing a krogan take care of salarians. 

Their previously bountiful reserves were going fast, except for the dextro food.

A salarian relief ship was going to meet them halfway to resupply and take over some of their cargo. Marika had assured them there would be enough food for everyone but Julie had done the inventory, right now they'd be living lean for a couple of days.

She smiled at her large friend when she caught her eye and gave her a thumbs-up. Out of all of their crew, Fakra was arguably the best with handling young ones.  
Julie left in search of her own lunch. They were back on the blander rations now, everything else was gone.

Life Support was usually untouched (except for that one time she'd walked in on one of the adult salarians weeping in there).   
The space was too small for anyone else to fit there with her anyway. Her little cot, a narrow shelf and a console you had to stand in front of were the only things occupying the closet-sized room.   
It was perfect.

If only she could teleport inside and avoid passing by Vex. He was talking to one of the salarians they'd rescued, Roak - if she remembered correctly.  
The crew quarters and the cargo-bay had been converted into rest areas for the salarians. The infants would stay in the medaby, the younger ones had the crew quarters and the rest shared space under the raised Brick (sometimes in it).

Vex hadn't mentioned anything about what had happened back in the cave. Liveria had give them all what Julie assumed to be the summarized version of events and left it at that. 

Julie hadn't quite gotten over the humiliation from weeks ago, but she couldn't stay mad at him after barely making it out alive and everything he'd gone through either. It was too petty. She'd decided to pretend it had never happened and avoided being alone with him (not that it was hard with so many people in a small ship). They were nowhere near back to normal, still awkward and tentative.

She surged forward, intending to pass by the men while they were still talking.

"-should really have removed it from there. What if one of the younger ones had found it?" Roak said.

Vex scrunched his heavy browplates and loomed.  
"They shouldn't have been nosing around other people's things in the first place. And it's hardly the worst thing in the world."

"T-true, I'll have a talk with them about that. But they're kids, they're curious and they're bored. You're lucky they aren't picking the ship apart." Roak hummed.

"They better not…" Vex growled while tracking her passing with his beady green eyes.

"Hey Moore, hold on a moment - I'll take the crates off your hands Roak, ask Hal if he's got anything new written to tide them over."

"Will do." Roak nodded at them both and took the rails down to the cargo-bay.

Julie hadn't wanted to stop, but she was curious. Gossip was rampant yet fun, and Salarians were the best gossips.   
It felt safe enough since there were too many people around to risk a touchy conversation anyway.

"What was that about?" she asked when the turian turned to her.

"Those little shits hacked the lock on the … uh, former crew's personal effects crates." 

"Nosy. You... ok with that?"

"It's fine. They're not using it anymore but…"

"Yeah." she looked away from the small flicker of hurt in his eyes. She'd figured the old crew was a sore spot for him. He never talked about them.

"What'd they find that Roak didn't like?" Julie asked to change the subject.

Vex gave her a shifty look and waved his mandibles.  
"… Might have been… inappropriate things in there."

"_Noooo_."

"_Yes_."

"_How_ inappropriate?" 

"… enough."

"You can't _not_ tell me now!? I'll die of curiosity!"

He crossed his arms, looking foreboding. She could still see a smirk pulling one mandible down.

"Come on, give me a hint. Was it toys?"

"Ew. No!"

"Was it-"

"It was just a For-!" he stopped and looked behind him when he heard someone climb towards the mess then spoke in a lower tone. "It was just a Fornax Pad. Happy?"

"Eh, that's not too bad."

"They turned it on. The last page it had been on was… graphic."

"Oh... Hope it was the older two."

"The culprits themselves. Screamed in terror from what I heard."

Julie hid a snicker behind her hand. Salarians were decidedly not into sexual things for the pleasure of it like many members of the other species.   
Anatomical studies? Sure.  
Anything more? She'd known a salarian in her university years who had literally run away during a heavy romance scene while watching a holo. Which was fair - it _had_ been kind of gross.

"Taught them not to mess with people's stuff though." Vex shrugged.

Julie twiddled her thumbs where her fingers were interlaced in front of her. Suddenly the short silence had become awkward.

"Can we... can we talk?" he asked as she started turning on her heel.

"Aren't we doing that right now?" Julie tried brushing the suddenly serious mood off with a joke. 

"In private, I mean." he rumbled.

  
"There's not really any privacy left on the ship." she mumbled back. It was true, everyone knew everything the others did, said or breathed. Even bathroom and shower time was on a tight schedule everyone had to know in order not to trip over each other. And the water was severly rationed.

Vex gave a meaningful glance towards Life Support and did the puppy eyes thing.  
Julie crossed her arms over her chest. It was unfair, she should say no. She _would_ say no. This was definitely a bad time to be having the conversation she thought he wanted to have. 

"Fine." she huffed.  
_Damn it._

He followed her into the little room and they stood awkwardly facing each other, too close for comfort. She was hyperaware of her cot at the backs of her knees and badly wanted to sit down but didn't want to give him too much of a vertical advantage.

"So?" she couldn't even cross her arms again without the risk of brushing against his chest so she stuffed her hands into her pockets sullenly.

He looked like he wanted to pace, but there was nowhere to go.

"I need to apologize."

Something in her chest twinged painfully.

"I shouldn't have… I'm so sorry that I…"

She didn't want to hear it. Didn't want him telling her how much he regretted the one enjoyable moment she'd had since everything in her life had crumbled. The only moment of peace in years.

"You don't have to." she cut him off.   
"To be sorry, I mean. It's fine. It happened. I'm not mad. There are bigger things to be worried about than hurt feelings. We can _move on_." Julie said, gritting her teeth at the last part.  
She could move on. It'd just take her a little time.

"No that's…" he was giving her the sad puppy eyes again. He was usually so severe looking, it was always disarming to see him look so… vulnerable.

"Really, Vex. We don't have to make a big deal out of it." Julie angled her body towards the narrow door - she had to get out of there, splash her ration of water over her heated face or something.

His hand shot out over her shoulder and settled on the wall at her back to stop her. Not touching but close. She considered ducking under it for a fraction of a second before he spoke again. Hesitant and heavy with the vibrations she associated with grief.

"I care about… your feelings. I didn't want to hurt you and I'm sorry that I did. It's just…" the arm retreated almost shyly. She could leave if she wanted, dart out and he'd probably never bring this up again. But the rawness in his voice made her stay, just a little bit longer.

The hum in his chest hitched as he paused, searching the chromed floor for words.

"… when we crashed on the moon. I don't remember everything, but I know I rushed out after we, the Agilis I mean, got put down. There were only four of us left. Dax, our pilot, he… he died getting the ship right. Broke his neck. And Artem… I was so focused on finding Lu, I didn't see… I was _supposed_ to watch his back."

She blinked away the wet in her eyes. The room was hot with both of them in it but she felt cold even though she was sweating. She could hear the little fans in the vents struggling.

"Lu's family, I don't regret going after her. But I don't know what to do about… my feelings for you. The last time I wasn't focused, it cost us a life. And we're _always_ in danger…"

It was true, they'd all brushed too close to death too many times already. During the War, on the moon, escaping it, on Sur'Kesh and Raekan. Even now they were at risk of starving if they weren't careful and lucky.   
Julie was more than familiar with the fear of loss. It was always in the background of her mind, but she'd already gone beyond it enough that it didn't cripple her actions any more.

"Hey, it's allright." she chocked out and reached around his back. The hug was awkward and stiff. She couldn't quite reach all the way around his cowl even on her tiptoes. At least he was wearing his softer fatigues and not his armor this time.  
His arms were rigidly straight by his sides before he finally relaxed and tentatively placed his palms on her back. The touch was so light it kind of tickled.

"I don't know what's going to happen or how bad it's going to get. But you can't control what happens any more than I can."

Vex grunted a little 'I know.' that was mostly vibrations.

"Everyone I ever cared about is gone. It snuck up on me - " she huffed a rueful laugh as he tightened his hold.   
"- you… and the crew are all I've got left. I don't want to ruin it but… I care about you too." she confessed in a half-whisper.

The rumbling stopped and he pushed at her shoulders gently to look her in the face. She never would have guessed turian eyes could go so wide.

"- been lookin' all over for you, can you help… me… wi-" the door hisses open and Alunia sticks her head in, trails off as she looks from Vex to Julie and back again.  
Julie registers the asari's surprised expression morph into absolute glee with a sort of detached horror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't know when the next update will be. Have some fluff in the meantime.


	22. Interlude - doodle dump (1?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I still have to work on the next chapter, have some doodles.
> 
> (References were used)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if y'all can tell, Alunia is the square-jawed one with the big splotches and Ianni is the button-nosed one with the freckles on her scalp.


	23. Conqueror

"This isn't what it looks like." Vex mutters and Lu's grin is so wide he wonders how it doesn't split her face.

Moore clears her throat and tries not to stumble on her cot as she takes a half-step back in the available space. He's usually fine with small spaces as long as he has standing room but Life Support had always felt mildly claustrophobic to him.

"Did you want something, Alunia?" Moore asks, tone practiced and neutral.

"Oh, no. Wouldn't dream of interrupting you. As you were!" Lu breezes back out and the door cycles shut with a finality that makes him dread the future teasing in store.

"We should get back to work." Julie monotones.

He's ashamed to admit he lets her go because he was still reeling after their… unexpectedly productive talk. Who knew telling the truth and trusting someone could work out so well?

Still, she's right about work. He has to replace the air scrubbers again and check the water recycling and purification unit. They still have enough liquid gases stored to replenish their supplies but the air could use a fresh oxygen infusion and he doesn't want to burn through what they have left too fast. Not to mention they had to share everything with the Horodan.

The Agilis wasn't made to bear so many people aboard and it was starting to strain her inner workings.

\-------------------------

Work was pleasant, Hal and Roak laugh at his absent-minded humming but he doesn't mind it.  
He even sleeps through his whole rest cycle. 

Breakfast is a little more tense. The levo food is running out while he, Sylcus and Hal still have more than enough to eat their fill. He feels a little guilty about it but there's nothing he can do. If they had some biomass to feed the small vats and grow protein their problem would be manageable, but those were meant for times when they were planetside and had the right resources.

He needs to prep the ship for discharge, they'd dropped out of FTL a little earlier than scheduled, Tenn hadn't liked the buildup in the Agilis or the Horodan and Moore had already marked possible dump sites on the CIC's galaxy map.   
The chosen gas giant was only a couple of hours away and he'd need to start retracting some of their sensors soon.

The salarian ship would wait their turn out behind the giants rings and keep a lookout with their limited tech.

He would have preferred landing somewhere, it was always safer, but this was quicker and they couldn't afford too much of a delay. The relief ships were barely half a cycle away, but there was some chatter about pirates roaming about in the last call and trying to jump with an overcharging Core was suicide.

Roak and the two young snoops (awkward and cagey - he has to constantly remind himself not to tease them and risk distraction) help him work while Hal monitors the drive. It's routine and a little boring but they're done just before Tenn lowers them enough to be in thruster-assisted orbit inside the gas giants magnetic sphere.

With the ship effectively blind some of the kids have gathered in the cockpit to watch the lightshow. He decides to join them (and lies to himself that it isn't because Moore is there too, teaching the youngest ones about gravitational forces, magnetic fields and failed suns).

The copilot's seat is already occupied by the two teenagers and a tiny one hanging off the back, looking out with big liquid eyes as Tenn hides his smile behind a cough and begins dropping heat.   
The stormy planet dances with colors as the auroral fields marble above it. Sheets of electric discharge and lightning shooting off chaotically.

Vex has one ear on Hal's reports, but most of his attention is drawn to the woman sitting on the cold floor, patiently explaining hurricanes and rotational winds to a bunch of distracted kids. 

Time passes and they're almost done, the auroras are fading.  
He wonders what she'd say if he'd ask -

Suddenly, the ship lurches, everyone is slammed to the side. The ship groans like an animal in its death throes and the emegency claxon and lights start.

Children cry as he picks himself up. He'd been leaning on the bulkhead and only banged his head a little.

Vex stumbles over to where Moore is. Her brow is bleeding ridiculous amounts of blood but she waves him off to check on the children.

Sylcus is screaming from the CIC to brace, telling Tenn to break off and run. He finds his voice just in time to stop the old salarian.

"You'll fry us if you back up now!" Vex yells over the chaos. 

Tenn mutters back to Sylcus on their channel. She says something else but Vex can't register it over the realization that he hadn't heard from Hal yet.

He tells Moore to get everyone to the medbay and makes a run for Engineering, long legs eating up the distance to the stairs in a few short seconds.  
He ignores the sounds of people hurting as he passes the Crew deck and finally makes it down.

The Agilis rumbles again, less violently this time, there's a warning over the intercom of a breach in the cargo hold.

He sees Hal, frantically working at his haptic interface - there's smoke and the acrid smell of burnt rubber. 

The Core is vibrating and Vex can feel it as a zinging at the backs of his teeth. There are small arcs of electric discharge surging out of the Core chamber coming dangerously close to the quarian.  
He rushes with a little biotic aid at Hal and grabs him just in time to be hit by one of the bolts. He screams in pain, his right arm feels like burning and he falls over the smaller quarian who yelps as they go down. 

Hal squirms from under him and gets right back to the sputtering interface, yelling in his comm "Core discharge stopped, get us out of here!"

Vex's vision goes a little fuzzy at the edges and he almost falls on his face when trying to use his right arm to get up.  
Hal is suddenly beside him, dragging them both away from the unstable Core and closing the airlock behind them as the ship bucks under them and Tenn backs them out of the gas giants pull.

Roak's in his ear, telling them he's sealing the cargo-breach - they can't go to FTL in a leaky can, it would rip the hull apart.   
The misfits who'd helped retract the sensors have already gotten them some contrast cameras back and Sylcus is ordering evasive maneuvers. 

Vex pushes Hal in front of him, they need to get to the gun battery.

"Anguisan! You better be alive! I need a targeting solution yesterday!" Sylcus screams over the crew comms.

The guns must still be unfolding from their protective hull. Tenn does another maneuver and Hal almost looses his footing. Vex forcefully pulls him up by his dishevelled hood before the boy smashes his visor in the wall.

"Al-almost there." he mutters back to Sylcus.

Ianni gives a stunted, frightened report that their shields are below 30%. 

The gun battery is lit in waves of red that make his head hurt. Hal initiates the interfaces as Vex opens a diagnostic on the adjacent panel. The guns are in the green. 

Information streams from the CIC and Vex can finally see what the fuck just happened on the tactical display.  
The Agilis, marked as a small blue bubble is surrounded by thousands of small gray projectiles hurtling through space. 

Part of the gas giant's ring of small asteroids had been blown towards them like a shotguns buckshot.  
Tenn was dodging the bigger rocks, trying to raise them above the killing field.  
A wave of the smaller, faster ones must have hit the Agilis in the back the first time. They were lucky they still had their engines.

The Horodan's green bubble is inert beyond the planets rings, no data from the comms. Its only defense were a pair of lateral guns that were low on ammo to start with.

Further still, another red bubble is rapidly approaching them.

<<Motherfucker…>> Lu whispers incredulously over the crew comm. He'd hooked it up to his console to stay in touch with everyone, hoping they were all alive. He can see her signal coming from the copilot's seat.

<<Is that…?>> Sylcus' voice trembles. She's still at her post in the CIC.  
<<Cargo-bay! Is that breach patched?>> the Captain barks over the intercomm.

Roak stutters a quick affirmative. His voice sounds wrong but Vex doesn't have the time to worry.

<<The Horodan isn't responding to our hails.>> Moore says from the comms console beside the Captain's perch. He can feel the relief that she's well enough to talk all the way to his knees - then annoyance that she didn't stay put in the medbay.

Vex had been prepping their firing algorithms while Hal was struggling to squeeze more power to their shields.  
As soon as they clear the debris field, they can shoot whatever that red bastard attacking them was.

The guns rattle the whole ship, vibrating in a precise tempo as they send volley after volley of deadly, accelerated rounds at their attacker and adding to the already chaotic sways and bucks from Tenn's flying.

Hal says something in a quarian dialect his translator doesn't recognize and Vex turns back.  
The screen in front of the young man is now occupied by a live feed from one of their external cameras. Image zoomed in to show… the Leviathan glowing an angry, turbulent blue. 

Vex's mouth feels too dry. The monster is sending large globes of biotic energy from its segmented legs - oddly only from the left side of its body. 

The Horodan had been drifting in the asteroid belt, probably even before the Agilis got hit.   
The Leviathan weaves through the empty space, almost elegantly, narrowly avoiding most of the fire while whatever little hits only make its corona of blue shiver and ripple.

"Fucker's tough…" he hears Fakra rumble. Somehow she'd gotten in behind them without either noticing.

<<It looks… paralyzed on one side.>> Lu mutters faintly.

The comms are silent for a beat and Vex can almost feel Sylcus' attention shifting to him again.

  
"Outta the way, whelps!" Fakra pushes him aside (gently, for her) and starts fiddling with his targeting solution.  
He only manages to give an indignant squak then grunt in pain as his injured arm bumps the battery rail.

The guns rumble and buzz as they redress with a small whine, then the staccato starts up again.  
The Leviathan is close enough that the delay to target is barely a couple of seconds.   
Fakra manages to clip it right on it's injured side, where the biotic shield turns out to be thinner - or perhaps less controlled.

The beast writhes in space, rolling out of harms way and presenting its stronger left side towards them to block any more damage.

The Horodan's crew must have caught on too because the ship had been slowly rounding the enemy to send a quick volley of their own at its weaker side.  
The Agilis is nearing the Leviathan, Tenn taking them in closer to attempt another hit.   
Vex pauses the assault to conserve ammo until Tenn gets them in position - Fakra grumbles. 

The Leviathan rolls again and sends more balls of energy outward.

The Horodan's bubble blinks out and Vex swears at the same time as Sylcus does. Tenn's weak denial is lost behind a strained cough.

  
The guns rattle again as Fakra snorts her anger and Vex watches as the beast's biotic shields shimmers.

It knows what they're doing and keeps shifting position, sometimes leaping short distances in a biotic flurry - they can't keep this up forever.

<<Tenn, we need to get out of here.>> Sylcus mutters.

<<What if…>>

<<They're _gone_.>>

The ship's gravity deepens as Tenn tries to peel them away, using one of the moons as cover from a burst of biotics.

<<Can we jump with the Core like this?>> Sylcus asks over the sudden silence.

"It'll be risky, but I think we can make a short jump to the next system ov - _Aaghhh_!" Hal cries out together with everyone else.

The same ringing as before is dominating all of Vex's senses. He sees his knees hit the floor but doesn't feel it. His mind is full of stabbing needles.  
It's not as strong as last time, he can hear the screaming around him and the pain from his burnt arm helps him push himself back up. 

Hal is crumpled halfway out of the door and Fakra roars before headbutting the wall hard enough to dent it.

"Tenn… you n-need..." he stutters, speaking feels like wading through muck.

<<Get us… OUT!>> Sylcus orders.

The ringing is getting harsher, angrier. As if the creature knows it's being defied.  
And then, as suddenly as it began - it stops.

There's a strange, empty echo in his ears as he picks himself and Hal off the floor.  
Fakra shakes her large head, glancing around with heavy pants of hot, krogan-y breath.

<<-gil-s! C-- --u -e-r m-?!>> a voice fizzes through.

The ship groans as Tenn moves them again. The flight is jerky and uncoordinated. The old salarian must still be reeling from the mental lashing.

<<Is an--ne the--?!>> the same voice comes in again, a little clearer.

<<Agilis… here.>> Sylcus pants over the long-range comm. 

Both Hal and Vex stand transfixed before the external camera feed. The Leviathan is limp, slowly drifting while sparks of blue fizzle and die around it.   
A big piece of it had been blown off, speckles of what he assumes can only be bits of its carapace and flesh reflecting the distant suns light.

<<Thanks for the assist...>> the Captain mutters, probably watching the same feed.

<<Noth-ng a superh-t-d slug of tungsten can't handle.>> the new Dalatrass Linron says, signal finally clearing just as the last glints of blue from the monster settle.  
<<And the warp field, of course. It's a wonder what you can get done when you have allies willing to share. Wish the asari would have told us of this sooner… then again, it wouldn't have made much difference _before_ anyway.>> Marika continues to chatter.   
Vex had never been happier to hear that woman's voice.

<<I see someone has a new warship.>> Sylcus humms appreciatively. Vex switches feeds to get a read on their allies. 

  
Several hundred million miles away, close to the edge of the system, a small fleet of salarian ships is steadily burning their way closer to the Agilis.   
The most impressive of them is the Kerat's Flight. A cross between a frigate and cruiser class ship, most of its frame taken up by the massive cannon running down its whole length.   
It was basically a gun with a bit of space left aside for living on it.   
Vex could see it bore some similarities to the Thanix cannon but there were several bulbous attachments around the chamber that no turian would design. He wondered how badly that affected their firing power and acceleration and how the warp field figured into everything. 

The rest of the ships are small fighters and a couple of centuries old frigates.  
  
<<It's a prototype. Just wait until we optimize it.>> Marika replies, no small amount of pride in her voice.

<<Hell of a shakedown run.>> Sylcus chuckles, relieved and tired all at once.

Vex sits on the small crate by the console. Hisses as he tries to check his burnt gauntlet.  
The next few hours pass in a sort of daze. He's aware that people are milling about, fixing things and exchanging personnel and cargo. He makes a token attempt to help, mostly out of habit than anything, but gets waved away to the medbay by Fakra and Hal.

Lu is angry at him when she sees his busted arm, but he can see the concern in her eyes as she carefully breaks the ruined gauntlet off him and then gently peels the undermesh from where it melted and fused with his plates and hide. Ianni helps stabilize him with biotics and picks up the smaller stuff left behind, wincing at each tiny fiber like it's her own flesh.

His muscles and nerves are fine and a generous dose of medigel solves the burn problem in a few hours but he'll have another big scar and weakened arm-plates until they can get him to a reconstructive surgeon in the right kind of facility that probably no longer exists or is already full of people much worse off than he.

He doesn't mind. It's only a scar. It _could_ have been Hal's life.

He's not the only one who got hurt in the attack. Roak and one of the teenagers who had taken over the external sensors died while trying to secure the ship. Run through on a broken piece of metal and a shattered skull respectively.

Some of the other kids had scrapes, bruises and there were a couple of broken bones.

Sylcus had some bad gouges in both her palms. Like she'd impaled her hands on spikes or gotten bitten by a varren.

Moore's headwound was a concussion. She'd ended up vomiting and fainting at her comms station as soon as Sylcus came down from her post. Ianni assured him she'd heal with enough time, care and rest.

The Horodan was completely destroyed. None aboard it had survived the Leviathan's attack.   
They had saved his crew by sending out a distress beacon before the Leviathan had gotten close enough to block their comms. It was what brought Marika and her fleet racing to them.

Vex wondered if the thing would have left the others alone if they hadn't shot at it. It could have killed the Horodan first and then disposed of the Agilis, but from the ship's blackbox it was obvious the beast had charged right at the small corvette, attempting to sink it in the gas giants gravity well or wreck it with high-velocity rocks.

The Kerat's Flight would remain behind with a couple of fighters to guard the Leviathan corpse and gather samples.  
Vex hoped this Dalatrass would be more careful than the last one.

Once the Agilis was cleared of foreign passengers and fixed to the best of their abilities (fortunately, the damage hadn't been critical _or_ hard to fix - he'd still check everything over though) it would be time to report to the Primarch and regroup on Earth. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a fast-tracked chapter now, not entirely happy with it but it'll do.


End file.
